Improvise Your Way Through This Dress Knitting Pattern

I occasionally find myself scrolling through new patterns on Ravelry just to see what’s out there that I might want to share with you, and it was on one of these occasions that the Black Cloud Dress by Julia Monning stopped my in my tracks.

I mean, you’re seeing the same picture. Isn’t it stunning? And while it shouldn’t be a difficult dress, that is a ton of knitting, with a full circle skirt the designer worked in mohair yarn.

The pattern is more of a guide than a strict pattern that will help you improvise your own dress to whatever size you need. The top can be worked with any yarn in the fingering, DK or worsted weight range. It’s a little hard to see in the photo but the top was worked with different patches that look like different yarns or yarns worked singly and held together.

The skirt calls for mohair yarn, but you could probably use anything light in a fingering weight. It’s just with that much knitting it will get heavy really fast and you don’t want it to sag on your body. It looks like the top of the skirt is worked with two strands held together while the lower part is worked with a single strand. The bottom I’m going to guess is hemmed, but it could also be worked with two strands to give a little weight to the base.

This pattern also calls for six different sizes of knitting needles, so that can also account for some of the transparency (and it makes the skirt get progressively bigger as you go without having to do as much shaping.

This looks like (is) a massive project but it also looks like it would be so much fun to wear. If you make one I absolutely want to hear all about it!

You can learn more and get the pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Julia Monning]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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