I knit my sister's wedding dress.  Somewhere I have better pictures, but not to be found this week.

I'm not really sure why the idea came to mind.  I know Spin Off magazine had a picture of a hand knit lace wedding dress.  I had recently taken a class in skirt knitting.  I love knitting fine lace and there just isn't that much outlet for it.  Then my little sister announces she's getting married.  So I suggested maybe I could knit her a dress. 

What followed was many months of planning, frustration, overnight mail and knitting, knitting, knitting.  I made several false starts.  For the only time I ever remember doing this, I twisted the knitting when joining into a circle at the bottom of the skirt.  Didn't notice for about 3 inches.  At one point my son (a toddler at the time) took the skirt off of the needles.   I am proud to say he survived the experience with no bodily damage.  I finally got a few inches done and felt I was on my way when my sister sent me a dress saying "Jer really likes the way this dress looks - can we make the wedding dress similar?".  Well of course we can, except it's got a much larger circumference around the bottom than my hard fought few inches, so restart once more, along with a sternly worded letter about NO MORE CHANGES!

I used lace panels that had meaning to  the happy couple.  The main motif was a rose bud taken from the Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting by Marjorie Kinzel.  My sister wrote a prize winning short story entitled 'Rosebud' and was co-owner of a bookstore called 'Rosebud and Fish'.  Then I took a pattern from one of Barbara Walker's books called 'Track of the Turtle'.  It is a variation on the marriage lines lace and Jerold considers the turtle his totem animal.  Then I filled in with large triangular inserts of mesh.  By the time the decreases for skirt were finished at the waist, the mesh was all gone and the lace panels all joined up.  Neat.

Then I knit a short jacket using rosebuds.  I wanted to knit in a sleeve by picking up around the armhole.  I couldn't find any instructions on how to do it, so finally I just gave it a shot and it worked fine.  Since then I've found a very good discussion of this in Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top.

Of course she needed something to wear under it, so we picked out some really nice pale pink fabric and made a slip dress for underneath.   My sister has 4 nieces, so we decided to put them in the wedding representing the 4 elements/directions - earth, wind, water and fire.  We made dresses for the girls out of the same pattern, but out of vastly different fabrics. 

The problem with knitting a wedding dress is that you have a very firm deadline.  By the end I was knitting in every spare minute.  I got it done, but couldn't lift my arms anymore.  I had to have the kids help me get a jacket on and a pull over sweatshirt wasn't even a possibility.  Thank goodness my sister wanted a short skirt.  What followed was several years of pain, physical therapy and very little knitting.

I finally have the tendonitis under control and find I can knit again, even knit a lot, but I quit if I get tired.  I am very happy to be back.  View this as a cautionary tale and don't ignore those little aches and pains!

 I feel I produced a very fine piece of knitting that has a lot of emotional meaning - for me at least.  The process of making the little girl dresses with my older sister and my aunt was also special.  I think we all connected through the fabrics and the symbols.  It was a wonderful experience and I'm glad I did it.  I felt for a long time that the dress was probably the peak of my knitting life and I was only 35.  That may be true, but 10 years later it doesn't really matter.  What matters is just clicking the needles.