Knit Your Own Little Black Dress (Or Whatever Color You Want)

I know a tank top style dress might not seem seasonally appropriate for folks in the northern part of the world, but knitting a dress is a great thing to do any time of year.

Of course you can wear a sweater over it, or you can wear it alone for any fancy occasions you might have coming up.

The Serendipity Dress from IsKnit is a fitted dress worked from the bottom up, starting with two panels that are joined after knitting a bit to form split sides. It’s worked with multiple strands of yarn held together to make a bulky gauge, though of course you could just use bulky yarn as well.

Check out the pattern (she also has skirt and top options) on Etsy.

[Photo: IsKnit.]

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Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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