I started this dress according to the pattern, albeit at a wildly different gauge as I wanted a finer fabric.

As I went along knitting the skirt from the bottom up, I already knew I wanted to have a shoulder saddle instead of a straight shoulder seam, and I wanted to set the sleeves into the armhole.

Right after the skirt was finished, I thought it would be nice to have some darts on the back in order to shape the dress to fit. It was a kind of trial and error but I think they worked out quite well.

When I got to the armholes, I also started the back neckline as I wanted it to be quite deep, with the front neckline being high.

After finishing front and back, I picked up stitches along the shoulder seam of the front, around the armhole and back to the shoulder seam of the back, and then cast on stitches for the saddle. Then I knitted the saddle along both shoulder seams, connecting it on the sides with the stitches I had picked up, until the armhole. There I shaped the shoulders of the sleeves with short rows and then finished the sleeves to what I thought would be an elegant 3/4 length.

I finished the dress by keeping the sleeve stitches on holders and picking up stitches around the neck, then picking up 8 stitches and knitting an edge at an angle of 90 degrees to the neckline and sleeves in a similar fashion as the shoulder saddle.

I am more pleased with the result of this rather daring modification of the pattern than I thought I’d be and look forward to wearing it this year for Christmas.