Anouk

March 2011

I've wanted to make this ever since I first spotted it in Knitty. I'm a huge fan of Kate Gilbert's designs, and this is one of my favourites.

The side seams are held together with tabs rather than sewn up, and so it's both easy to get on and off and able to grow with the baby. And the colour-scheme is cute without being overly girly. There's something about knitting with bright orange which makes me very very cheerful too.

What should have been the back of mine was a bit neater than the front, and so I switched them around, meaning that the button used to fasten the shoulder is visible from the front. I added another button on the other shoulder to balance it out, but it doesn't actually fasten or unfasten.

I cast off the neck knitwise, and if I was going to make this again, I would cast off the tops of the pockets that way too, rather than in moss stitch. I think a tighter cast-off would sit more snugly against the dress itself. Mine gapes a little, although I could probably add some press-studs to fix that.

I made the pockets using intarsia, although it can be done using duplicate stitch. I don't mind intarsia so much, but I hate sewing up, and doing the pockets took me aaaages, and I still think they could be neater...

Total project cost £6.00 (free pattern made using Rico Creative Cotton Aran which is £1.50 per skein at first4yarns.com).

Pattern: Anouk by Kate Gilbert

Yarn: Rico Creative Cotton Aran

Amount: 2 skeins (mc)

Colourway: Orange 74 / Cardinal 11 / Red 05 / Pistachio 41

Needles: 4.00mm

Size: Smallest

On ravelry: here