My Manos Mini-dress and More

About a week ago, I saw an amazing knitted dress on Craftster an I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, on Thursday, I walked into my local yarn shop, Noe Knit, and saw this amazing emerald green shade of Manos de Uruguay. I visited the yarn on Friday, and then again on Sunday. On Monday, I bought a skein, and started swatching for a Manos Mini-dress!




This will be my first time knitting without a pattern. I hope it turns out to be something that I will want to wear, especially since the Manos yarn is not cheap. I see myself wearing it in the fall opaque tights and boots. I am knitting it at a loose gauge on size 13 needles, so if all goes well, it should be a quickie. I am doing a top-down raglan, and have already taken the arm hole stitches off the needles.

I am a few more inches into my saffron cables. I have started the fifth of 18 skeins and am still on schedule. Here's my slow progress:



Rusted root is going slowly. It's in my purse and I get a couple rows done here and there, but nothing photo-worthy. I changed the leaf lace into a diamond pattern and am switching to bigger needles when I am on the sleeve stitches, so that they will be extra poofy. The needle switching is tedious and can take some of the blame for my sluggish pace.