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]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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