Princess Rosalee's baby dress 'Raspberry'

This is a dress with a ruffle yarn skirt made for Princess Rosalee, who is currently 2 months old. I don't know exactly what size dress this pattern made, but I think she might need to grow some more before she will be big enough to wear this. And that's OK!

Front of dress

I had a large ball of pink yarn (no label, of course) that was included in a bag of yarn that was given to me some years ago. The ball was large enough that I thought it might have enough yardage to crochet this baby dress. But unfortunately, I discovered when I was on about row 10 of the skirt that the pink yarn had actually been knotted to and wound around a decent amount of another color of peachy-pinkish yarn at the center of the ball. (Ugh.) I have no idea why anyone would tie a different color of yarn on to continue winding a ball like that, but alas. That's just how it was done.

First attempt

So that left me with Rosalee's dress about 3/4 completed and needing to try to figure out the brand and colorway of the pink yarn I had started with, or at least to find something close enough to be able to finish the project without it looking awful.

Starting second attempt

 

Coboo label

I thought perhaps the mystery pink yarn was one made by Red Heart, but after lots of looking around both online and IRL, I wasn't able to find another pink yarn that matched this (of course not!! 🤦) which left me with the choice of continuing to work in another yarn color that didn't match, or else to start over with another yarn. I opted to start over using Lion Brand Coboo in the Pale Pink colorway.

 

Comparing size

Coboo has a lovely feel and drape, but it is a struggle to crochet with it because the plies are very loosely spun, and so it often wants to split, which means you have to be VERY careful to hold the plies together as you work. I have used Coboo before on my circular knitting machine, and it worked easily there. But using it to crochet is a different story. However, it was the color and type of fiber content that I wanted to use for the base of this dress, so I persevered. 😂

Dress inside out

 

Underside of skirt

Another difference is that the Coboo yarn is rated a 3/DK weight, whereas the other yarn I had started with felt more like a 4/worsted weight (and the dress pattern calls for a 4 weight yarn), so I also had to use a smaller hook size than what the pattern recommended. 

Back of dress

Attempting to make a pattern in a different gauge than what the designer used is another layer of challenge, but at least I had the other version of the dress that I started with to give me something to compare size as I began making the dress with the Coboo yarn, and I ended up being able to come fairly close to the original by adding just a few extra stitches/rows.

Dress with cardigan

Frisian Knitting Tutorials has a video on YouTube that shows how to crochet the dress and also a paid pattern available on Ravelry, but you can make the dress by following the video. I followed the video for my project, except I added Rozetti ruffle yarn to each DC stitch in every-other row of the skirt starting in the increase row after creating the arm holes in the bodice. (The ruffle yarn doesn't intrude onto the inside of the dress, so it won't irritate Rosalee's skin.) I also added a row of shells for a finishing trim around the hemline, which you can see on the "dress inside out" photo.

Dress with cardigan and bonnet

The ruffle yarn actually came from a pre-knitted ruffle scarf (meaning it was a display sample piece that I purchased already made, and thus I never had the label from the skein) that I purchased at a little yarn shop in Lake Havasu, Arizona, way back in the early 2010s. But I did still have another skein of the same brand in another colorway with its label intact in my stash, which I bought at the same shop, which made it possible to locate the name of the colorway of the one I used for this project by searching around online. To make the ruffles, I simply undid the knot at one end and unraveled the scarf to work the ruffle yarn loops held with the Coboo yarn, resulting in this ruffle-y sweet baby dress that's fit for a little princess to wear.

Aren't these sunglasses simply adorable?!?

And if the ruffles eventually get tattered from being worn/laundered, it will be easy to snip the loops to remove the ruffle yarn while leaving the underlying pink dress intact and still perfectly wearable on its own.

As you can see in the photos, I also crocheted a cardigan and bonnet to go with the dress. Here's a link to my post about that project. 

Dress, cardigan, bonnet, sunglasses, and headband!

My gift parcel to Princess Rosalee includes a set of mesh bags that can be used to protect delicate items like her dress while they're being laundered. I'm also tucking in a set of sleeveless onesies, in case Mommy prefers Rosalee to have a lightweight layer between her skin and the dress, and a pair of white leggings, in case it's a cold day, to keep Rosalee's legs warm under the skirt. I'm also including a set of ruffle diaper cover shorts (one white, one pink) for Rosalee to wear under the skirt on warm days. There is also a set of colorful, stretchy headbands, which I bought just to be able to add a little "flower" (made from the last few inches of leftover Rozetti lace yarn) to the pink one. My husband also found an adorable set of pink baby sunglasses, so of course we had to grab those, too! All in all, I think Baby and Mommy will be thrilled. 💜

Headband with "flower"

Extra goodies!

 

Sweet Sweater and Bonnet for Princess Rosalee

To go with the ruffle dress for Princess Rosalee, I wanted to include a sweet little cardigan and bonnet, which both utilize the same V-stitch of the Baby Dress Raspberry pattern.

This is the thinnest yarn I have ever worked with, but it is not thread; it's a very thin but soft 3-ply spun yarn. The labelless skein was in a bag of yarn that was gifted to me years ago, so I don't know what brand it is or any other information about it, but it makes 20 wpi. After making both the cardigan and bonnet, I had just a small amount of the yarn left over.

The cardigan is finished with 6 white buttons (3/8-inch diameter), which I found on Amazon. The bonnet is trimmed with white grosgrain ribbon (3/8-inch wide), which I also found on Amazon, plus another one of the buttons applied decoratively on each side to cover and also reinforce the stitching that attaches the ribbon to the bonnet.

 

Red Hat

I had a random 123g ball of red, apparently acrylic light-worsted weight yarn in my stash, part of some gifted yarn from my daughter's friend Allie. 

Amid the wave of red nisse resistance hats, voici ma version. Mine is crocheted from the bottom up, starting with a slip-stitch ribbing worked flat (sideways) and then seaming the ends together and continuing to work the crown of the hat from the bottom up. Ordinarily, the crown would be worked in the round, but since I usually wear my hair in a messy-bun style, I'm leaving the back of my hat open with flaps on either side, and I'm working the crown in rows. 

The ribbing has 67 ribs, a number that is meaningful to me. The crown has 68 stitches plus 6 stitches on each end for the overlapping flaps, for a total of 80 stitches. 

The ribbing is crocheted with a 5mm hook, and I switched to a 5.5mm hook for the crown, which I worked using the lemon peel stitch. The braided tassel is detachable, so the hat can be worn with or without the tassel. 

The hat used about 100g of the 123g ball.

 

SPAM Baby

This adorable little SPAM Baby design by Stephanie Pokorny of Crochetverse is irresistibly cute, so I just had to grab some pink stash yarn and my hook to make one! Besides, my husband loves SPAM. 💜

I didn't have any pink chenille yarn on hand, so I improvised with some Red Heart With Love in the Bubble Gum colorway. To approximate the bulky yarn, I used the "triple yarn as you go" technique, which Crochet with Tuula Maaria shows us how to do in this YouTube video tutorial.

If you have chenille yarn on hand, SPAM Baby does look much more cuddly when made with that type of yarn. Stephanie used Ice Yarns Chenille Super Bulky in the Salmon colorway. But mine made with worsted weight acrylic yarn held triple is cute in his own way. 🥰

I used some 15mm safety eyes that I had in my stash, but the 18mm eyes by Darkside Crochet (in the color Succubus) that Stephanie used on hers are gorgeous.

Thank you for sharing this adorable and fun free pattern with us, Stephanie! SPAM Baby is a sweet little softie toy that could also work as a character-filled keychain accessory.

The Simple Thing plus hood

If you like the look of the Sophie Scarf, then give this free pattern for The Simple Thing by Melina Brell a try.

I ended up cannibalizing the yarn and needles from my attempt to make the Slice of Goodness Wrap by Purl Soho to make this project. I really, really wanted to finish Slice of Goodness, but the process was going to be very lengthy, and even though I made it to around halfway through, I lost the will to go on.

Gauge shot

I had been aware of the Sophie Scarf design for a while, but that design by itself didn't intrigue me, mainly because I don't like short scarves. I do like i-cord edges and garter stitch, however. So when the Sophie Hood version was released, that's when I started getting interested.

So my plan is to see if I can approximate the hooded version of this scarf by using The Simple Thing as my starting point.

HeathlandKnits has a good video tutorial on YouTube that walks you through the setup process for The Simple Thing scarf, and I highly recommend that you watch that video when casting on. There is also a video showing how to graft the ends together when finishing the scarf. Both of the video links included in the PDF of the pattern appear to be broken, so that's why I'm sharing the links with you here. It took me a bit of clicking around to find them.

Part 1 done

Because I prefer my scarves on the longer side, I'm making this using a 6-row repeat instead of the basic 4-row repeat suggested in the pattern. Whatever length you prefer for your pattern repeat, definitely use a stitch marker that opens/closes as a progress keeper! This almost becomes a mindless knit with the help of a progress keeper clipped to your project. 

Part 2 starts with a buttonhole

I originally planned to have the scarf part be at least 30 to 36 inches long and around 10 inches wide on each side before starting on the hood part. The way I'm visualizing this coming together, I'll have to knit each scarf side before joining them together to knit the hood. I haven't done that sort of thing before, so we'll see if it works. 🤞

Parts 1 and 2 complete

Part 1 ended up being about 27 inches long by 9.5 inches wide at widest end, or 50 stitches (not counting i-cord stitches) by 296 rows. I started part 2 by making a buttonhole at the tip, which required it to be a bit wider than the tip of part 1, so I knitted a few rows without increasing part 2 until the width at that length was about the same as on part 1, and then I continued the same increasing pattern (every 6 rows) as on part 1 until achieving the same overall width and length.

Before grafting the i-cord edging

After joining the two sides to begin the hood (and adding stitches along the i-cords at the back of the neck for a comfortable fit), I ended up with 120 stitches on the needle, not counting the i-cord stitches on each edge of the work. This will give me a hood with enough depth to comfortably fit over my hair, which I usually wear up in a messy bun style. 

Start of part 3

There is a Sophie Hood video tutorial that shows some key techniques for that pattern, and in watching that video, it's clear that I'm using a different method to knit the hood for my project. They knit the hood flat (in line with the scarf) and have a seam to join the entirety of the sides of the hood at the back; I'm also knitting my hood flat, but I'm doing mine seamlessly (bottom up) except for where the top edge will be grafted. 

Rescue line added before starting hood decreases

I debated for a while how to work the top of the hood, meaning whether I would attempt to make the back part slightly shaped/rounded with short rows or decreases. Finally, I found this video tutorial by Yuha Knitting that shows an easy-to-understand method for making decreases to help make the back of a hood knitted like mine a bit rounded, so it looks less pointy on the wearer's head. I think I'll try doing mine that way. (I could also envision a method of working short rows on either side of the center of the back of the hood to shape the crown that way, but I just didn't want to work that hard, so I'm glad I found the technique by Yuha Knitting!)

Hood complete with crown decreases

To prepare for the decreases, I added a marker to show where the center of the back of the hood was, and I will make the hood decreases on either side of that marker. I also added a marker to show when I was working a right-side row, since I intended to work decreases only on the right side of the work. Lastly, I added a rescue line in the last row before starting to decrease, just in case I wasn't happy with how the decreasing section was going. It would be easy to rip back and start the section again if needed. 😂 The decrease before the marker will be a left-leaning decrease (SSK), and the decrease after the marker will be a right-leaning decrease (K2tog).

Hood complete with top seam closed

I calculated that I wanted to decrease the crown of the hood by about 40 stitches (about one-third of the hood's total width), which, decreasing 2 stitches on each right-side row, would require 40 rows to achieve. (With decreases worked only on right-side rows, every decreasing row is followed by a non-decreasing row on the wrong side, so 20 decreasing rows plus 20 non-decreasing rows equals 40 rows total.) Based on my estimated gauge, those 40 rows would add about 3.5 inches of height to the hood. And since I wanted the total height of my hood to be about 13-14 inches (measuring from the top of my shoulder to the crown of my head), that meant that I should knit about 10 inches of hood before starting the decreasing rows.

Time to add a button

I also found a nice tutorial by Lindsey of the Yarina blog hosted by Custom Yarn that shows how to join the top of a hood knitted in garter stitch like mine using a 3-needle bind-off technique that blends invisibly into the established garter stitch. Woo-hoo! I'm going to try doing that, too.

Button info