At Purl, we received a shipment from Habu Textiles, a Japanese company that makes some of the most unique yarns that I've ever seen. In the shipment were some large hanks of beautiful white bamboo. Bamboo has a lovely drape and sheen and feels silky smooth against your skin.  In fact, a lot of customers at Purl look at it and touch it and think that it is silk.  It's not hairy at all, and since it's a plant fiber, it's much cooler to wear.  Perfect for summer knitting. --Leah

I want to make a garment with this beautiful bamboo, but to think about wearing white on the streets of New York in the summer makes me shudder. I've decided white is a nice color for a nightgown, only to be worn indoors.

A picture of a lightweight white cotton dress with crocheted borders my mom wore in the house when it was hot comes to mind, but I'm changing the neckline to a V-neck with spaghetti straps and making the skirt an A-line.

The straps need to be made with a sturdy stiff yarn to support the weight of the skirt.  I was all set to make the straps in linen and picked Euroflax Originals 100% linen yarn in champagne, because I wanted the colors to be very natural-looking.I played around with some crocheted borders I found in a booklet of knit and crochet stitch patterns my grandmother gave me.  I settled on one that was simple but feminine-looking, but then . . .

I totally fell in love with a fussy, frilly crochet pattern I found while looking through books at Purl.  Piecework magazine made a reproduction of a turn-of-the-20th-century magazine call Weldon's Practical Needlework. I have always loved flipping through it and admiring the drawings of each of the projects.  The titles of the projects, like "Gentleman's Mitten" and "Opera Cape with Pineapple Pattern," captivate me.  The intricacy and precision of the pieces interests me, as well as the idea that these pieces came from a time when some people had to make clothes, or else they might not have had any, is fascinating in a time and place where ready-made is the norm. -- Leah

So I'm ditching the linen idea because I know the heartiness of the yarn won't really jive with the delicacy of this "Chemise Trimming." I picked another Habu yarn, Cotton Gima, a fine cotton ribbon in light blue that almost feels like paper.  I like the slightly quirky look of the ribbon in the swirly fan-like pattern as a swatch, but I don't think it is quite right, either. 

I still have to find a solution to the top support issue. With the bamboo, I'm going to try an I-cord edging all around the top and make the straps and I-cord as well, then pick up stitches for the edging.  Hopefully this will support the full weight of the dress and allow the edging to sit nicely around the neck and shoulders without being pulled and becoming distorted. If that doesn't work, my backup plan is to make the I-cording and edging with Rowan 4-ply cotton.  Hopefully this will be a good combination of both strength and delicacy.
Meanwhile,  I've knitting the dress from the bottom up to the waist and have run of out of yarn.  I tried it on today and marvelled at how well it fit!  It's exactly how I pictured it.  All that scribbling of numbers before I started knitting has certainly paid off!  It's the first time in a while that something hasn't come out too big (I'm a loose knitter and tend to become even more so as the project progresses).

Since I have a break until I get more yarn I'm thinking about the bottom hem.  I'm toying with the idea of picking up stitches on the inside of the skirt and crocheting down to create the effect of the lace peeking out from under.  Here is a swatch using some mercerized cotton that is comprable in weight and size to Rowan 4-ply cotton.  --Leah

I'm very close to finishing.  All of the flip-flopping and mind-changing I did with the border has been worth it.  The dress has turned out nothing like I originally expected, but still has all of the elements that I  wanted.  The beautiful, mossy sea green borders have a natural look and feel and the crochet pattern adds a feminine touch.

I just finished putting an I-cord edging all around the neck and hem so that I would have something from which to pick up the crochet stitches. I-cording makes such a clean line especially when you use a contrasting color.  I've put I-cords on the edges of my last few projects!

 


All that's left is putting the frilliness around the neck, which is the part I'm most excited about.  It's like the dessert portion of my bamboo dinner!

Although I had so much fun creating this dress, the rainy Labor Day weekend had me looking forward to finishing.  I can't wait to make something wool and warm to wear around the shop this winter.  -- Leah

I was so excited for frill that I twisted the round that I picked up around the neck.  I always tell customers at Purl to be careful when joining rounds; seems I need to take my own advice more often.  Also, the straps stretched and became too long.  

I discovered both of these  issues at the same time and ripped out days worth of work to get back to the place where I could fix the straps.  It was a little painful,  but I'm very glad I did it. 

To start again, I decided to pick up  stitches around the armholes and work the crochet round on a smaller scale, so I could get accustomed to the pattern.  That way, if I made  more mistakes, there wouldn't be so much to rip out. Along the way,  I changed up the pattern by taking out some rounds that were made for a ribbon to be threaded, which I'm not going to do.

I have one sleeve done and I'm really happy with the way the dress looks with just frilliness around the sleeves.  There is a nice balance between simplicity and decoration and I don't want to interrupt it by overdoing the crochet.  I'm almost done!

Here is a sneak peak of the finished nightdress.  -- Leah