Knit a Stunning Wedding Dress

I wasn’t that into knitting when I got married, but it never would have occurred to me at the time to knit a wedding dress. Now I’m a little sad there weren’t a lot of homemade elements in our celebration, but it doesn’t stop me from admiring people who do knit or crochet or otherwise make their own dresses, flowers and other things for their big day.

This dress is billed as the Peacock Wedding Dress from Nikarra Palmer-Simmons, but if I knit such a thing you can bet I’d be wearing it on any occasion I could think of just to show it off.

This gorgeous design is worked in lace weight yarn from the top down. The bodice is fitted and has decorative eyelets as well as a bit of beading. The full skirt features peacock feather lace and other lace designs, and it can be beaded as well. You’re going to want to click through to this pattern on Ravelry just so you can see the closeups.

Nikarra says the pattern was originally inspired by a design from Army of Knitters, but as it evolved it also includes some of Meg Swansen’s Spanish Peacock chart and the skirt is “heavily based” on a design from Irina Makarova.

She also notes that the dress is designed to be worn over an underdress and with a full tulle skirt to support its weight, particularly if you use the beads.

The pattern has four sizes, but the small and medium haven’t been tested at the time of this writing. The designer notes this pattern is best for intermediate to advanced knitters because of all the lace and the sheer size of the project. Lace is charted and written but comfort reading charts would help a lot with this project.

The pattern is free on Ravelry so if you’ve ever had a hankering to knit a wedding dress, or a dress fancy enough to be a wedding dress but you’re just wearing it to Costco, check it out. I would love to hear if you try it!

[Photo: Nikarra Palmer-Simmons]

This is a project that kind of stopped me in my tracks when I saw it while scrolling Ravelry. It’s such a fun contrast of a semisolid color worked in stockinette stitch and a more tonal yarn worked in a feather and fan variation.

(See more about feather and fan in this post on my blog; I also have a feather and fan scarf if you want to practice.)

The Nitty Wrap from Renate Dziedataja is worked in fingering weight yarn from a Finnish mill, and the name is the Finnish word for meadow. You of course can use whatever yarn you have handy.

It’s even more interesting because the project is worked from one short end across to make a long rectangle, and the two different sections are joined using intarsia. Generally we think of intarsia as being used for colorwork, so this is a fun different use of it. The lace section is charted in the pattern but it’s pretty easy to follow.

And of course it’s totally optional but to add a little more interest and tie the two colors of yarn together the designer also added some embroidery along the short edges on the stockinette side. A drawing of what she did is included but you can also add different designs if you’d rather.

The shawl has I-cord edgings to give it a nice finished look that doesn’t take away from the organic simplicity of the design.

As shown, the shawl measures about 22.5 inches/57 cm wide and 59 inches/150 cm long. You can of course adjust this according to your preference, the amount of yarn you have and the gauge you are getting. Try a thicker yarn to make a wider shawl if you like.

This pattern is available in English and Latvian for free on Ravelry.

Photo: Renate Dziedataja

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