Lilandra Crochets

Crochet (with some Knitting)

Barbie’s Sweater Dress

Knit, Pattern
I had just finished making a red sweater for Barbie following the knit by number instructions … and after
much help on K&C figured out how I did my raglan decreases incorrectly and what I should do instead.

Red sweater for Barbie

Red sweater for Barbie following knit by numbers. Do you see the non-mirrored decreases?
I was able to put that together with the pink and blue dress instructions to figure out how to do sleeves:
why do Kitchener to attach them? Why not just pick up the held cast off stitches and the new cast on
stitches and knit by sleeves like the thumb gusset for a mitt? Well, I still don’t technically have the
answer for that as I haven’t done a dress with sleeves yet as I’m all about the one piece for these five
knit dresses I planned (and Barbie with her pointed splayed fingers and a palm much wider than her
wrist is hard to dress with sleeves).
Also I’m lazy. So cap sleeves!
I’m going to try to give instructions on how to make one of my favorite of these dresses. Unfortunately I
have already sent the dress away and didn’t take copious notes so, I will be remaking it, mentally, as I go
along and update when the recipient receives it and is able to take measurements for me.

Yarn: fingering, #1. I used about 8g so about 45 yards of primavera tejiendo cariño. I will try making it
with wool like one day.
Needles: 2.25mm double pointed needles. You can use magic loop and circulars or perhaps work it flat
and seam it.
Materials: 5 stitch markers for beginning of the row (BOR) and to mark where to decrease.
Gauge: in stockinette, 18 stitches by 28 rows correspond to 2in by 2in.
Final measurements: will have to ask recipient to measure it
Notes: This is made bottom up.

Abbreviations and stitch patterns:

PM – place marker
MM – move or slip marker to the next needle
k2tog – knit 2 stitches together
Ssk – slip-slip-knit

I used a seed stitch columns pattern that required a multiple of 5 stitches:

Round 1: (k4, p1) repeat until end of round.
Round 2: (k3, p1, k1) repeat until end of round.
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 as many times as necessary.
Close up of seed stitch columns
Can you see the seed stitch in columns?
Pattern:
Cast on 40 stitches. You will be working in the round.
Round 1-3: 1×1 ribbing, that is, (k, p) repeat until end of round.
Round 4-12: stockinette stitch, that is, knit all the rows, or knit rows until the distance from the ribbing is
about 3/4in.
Round 13-18: do 3 repeats of the seed stitch columns pattern.
Round 19-24: stockinette stitch
Round 25-30: do 3 repeats of the seed stitch columns pattern.
Round 31-68: 38 rows or about 2in of stockinette stitch.
// Now for the sleeves. I actually cast off 4 stitches for each armhole but I think 3 would be better so
numbers will be adjusted here from what I did.

The armhole
The armhole gapes a little bit which is why I decided to bind off 3 stitches instead of 4.
// Some people might place markers in between the sections (front to left arm, left arm to back, back to
right arm, right arm to front). You don’t need to because I will count stitches for you to increase. But just
in case, I will use markers too as this is what gave me trouble with my red sweater. Make sure your
markers are different from your BOR marker.
Round 69: k8, bind off 3, k17, bind off 3, k9.
Round 70: k8, PM, cast on 14, PM, k17, PM, cast on 14, PM, k9. [62 stitches]
Round 71-73: do 3 (or 4) rows of stockinette.

// Now we’re going to start raglan decreasing. You will be decreasing 8 stitches for each round, followed
by a round of plain stockinette. For each of the four markers, you will knit to two stitches before the
marker and then ssk decrease those two stitches, then slip the marker to the next needle and decrease
k2tog the stitches after the marker.

The raglan decreases

It’s a little hard to see the decreases because of the colour way and there are only three! But it’s there
🙂
// we will only do about 3 rows of decreases because Barbie is not that big. You can do another if you
want a tighter neck and most likely it should stretch just fine but it might give your trouble pulling it over
her head.
// If you have a Tall Barbie, you might need more. Curvy Barbie would definitely need more as she is
wider and you would have to cast on more stitches to start the dress. I will have to think about Petite
Barbie.
Round 74: k6, ssk, MM, k2tog, k10, ssk, MM, k2tog, k13, ssk, MM, k2tog, k10, ssk, MM, k2tog, k7. [54
stitches]
Round 76: knit
Round 77: k5, ssk, MM, k2tog, k8, ssk, MM, k2tog, k11, ssk, MM, k2tog, k8, ssk, MM, k2tog, k6. [46
stitches]
Round 78: knit
Round 79: k4, ssk, MM, k2tog, k6, ssk, MM, k2tog, k9, ssk, MM, k2tog, k6, ssk, MM, k2tog, k5. [38
stitches]
Round 80: knit
Round 81-83: 1×1 ribbing.
Bind off, cut yarn and weave in ends.

From this page: https://lunkalily.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/barbies-sweater-dress/