Barbara Walker top down Barbie dress - progress photo

Hi all. Here is "the dress," now approaching waist shaping. Thus far, worked on 2 dpns through the raglan double increase, then 3 dpns as each sleeve was worked, returning now to 2 dpns as I reach the waist.

Sleeves are worked separately by knitting to a point, attaching fresh yarn, knitting two rows and casting off in knit. Thereafter, a few stitches with a sewing needle seam the sleeves and 3 stitches are picked up at the underarm (with the original yarn, not from the bit of fresh yarn) and left unworked ...knitting across the front to the next sleeve and repeating. The picked up stitches are not worked until the purl row. Next up, subtle dart shaping for the bustline, and there it is, ready for waist shaping.

The waist shaping is achieved with a tighter stitch. I'll be posting about that after the fact. I have to admit, even tho I'm on the 3rd attempt at this little pink dress, I'm really having a lot of fun making it. I've missed knitting~!

The view is of the front. While I professed that I intended to stick to the pattern as much as possible, I had to eliminate the short row shaping above the bust darts. Once the sleeves are sewn, there is no ripping back past them. In my first attempt, I misread the pattern. I did save the piece, and I learned from it. In the second attempt, I seriously disliked the short row shaping. If I can muster up a visual for you, it looked like Madonna's pointy cones, and also it was as if the bust area had "a face" .... clearly, I could see 2 eyes at the boobies and a nose under and between them. Considering the darts for bust shaping below, the short rows are redundant and unnecessary.

Dress number 3...so far, I love ya.

Later folks. Donna