Missoni Style Dress

Finally, the Missoni style dress is done. It didn't take that much time actually, only three weeks. I had my doubts in the beginning that 300 g would be enough, but while procrastinating my visit to the yarn shop, the progress of the knitting indicated, that the yarn might actually suffice. And it did - I have only some 5 or 6 m left! Just as I love it - no left over yarn :)

Pattern: Missoni Style Dress (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Diva Batik, 100% microfibre, 300 g, 1050 m
Needle: 3.5 mm
Time to knit: three weeks

I've never been a fan of thin belts, but I think I like this dress better with a belt.

The pattern is entirely improvised in the course of the knitting - with increases and decreases included in the chevron repeats. Initially I had planned a different finish at the top, but when I reached the underarms, I opted for the raglan upper part, thus keeping the color lines relatively even. 

I also decided not to bother with a lining. The knitting is fairly dense and the dress is not transparent or lacy, and anyway I'm not sure it would get much wear. Not that I don't like it - I do! I just don't see myself wearing a knitted dress a lot. The project was interesting and I'm glad it turned out successful but like the 30 some cross-stitch pictures I keep in a box in my wardrobe, it was all more about the process rather than the finished object :))

Surprisingly, my husband is very impressed by the dress and claims that it is one of the best things I've done and that I should wear it. I'll think about it :))

Meanwhile

I've been planning and working on two dresses.
Dress No 1 is the Burda Ribbon Dress from BurdaStyle Magazine 03 / 2013.

My plan is to make it without the ribbons, to use a bit lighter fabric and lining. I've traced the pattern from the magazine and bought the fabric and the lining. I should really learn about fabrics, I only know that the fabric is poly crepe silk and the lining is poly jersey, I think.
With a bag full of cut and unfinished projects I didn't want to ruin another fine and expensive fabric :)))

I've started my adjustments to the pattern by adding 2 cm to the neckline to make it less open. I'll also have to shorten the above the waist pieces by 2 cm and to shorten the skirt part (well, that's not really worth counting as an adjustment). I'll start with the lining and use it as a muslin for the dress. The pattern does not envision a lining, but I think it would be fairly easy to make and attach one.
However I'm moving really slowly on this project, because I also started

Dress No 2. It was inspired by Elena Kuzmina's latest Missoni style dress. I've bought the same yarn - Alize Diva Batik, but in a different colorway, mine is 3679 in fern green, grey, light yellow,  orange and pink. I only bought three skeins, and I now think I'll need four, so an urgent visit to the yarn shop is in order, while they haven't sold out the yarn from my color batch.
This is where I've got so far - 15 cm from the bottom. I steam blocked a small portion to see how it would look and I like it so far. Because length is important, I plan to knit further 5 cm, then transfer the knitting on a longer cord and steam block it properly and to repeat the process every 20 cm to avoid unwanted sagging and lengthening in the end.

I've planned my dress with knee-length and the pattern I've drafted so far is as follows:
Cast on 288 sts, distributed in 16 repeats of 18 sts each.
The chevron chart is:
m1, k1, m1, k7, k3tog, k7
The decreases will be included in the chart - 6 decreases of 16 sts each, a total of 96 stitches decreased from the bottom to the waist.
The decreases will be in the k3tog part - m1, k1, m1, k7, k4tog, k6, m1, k1, m1, k6, k4tog
Thus every second repeat will be decreased by 2 stitches, alternating the decreased repeats a total of 6 times - when the knitting is 21 cm long, 26 cm, 31 cm, 35 cm, 40 cm and 46 cm. This is what I've planned up to the waist so far, we'll see how it goes and then I'll calculated the increases for the bust and the form of the neckline. I have an idea to make it straight from the armsycles to the shoulders and to regulate the width of the shoulders with some piping and an Icord. If I ever get there :))))