Something To Aspire To

Today's topic is to talk about something we aspire to as knitters. I feel like I could talk all day about this! A common theme among the blogs I'm keeping up with this week is to be a better designer, and that's something I really would like to conquer. But, for now anyways, there are so many awesome designs coming out of other people's heads I'm having difficulty keeping up! My goal for this next year, however, is to knit myself a dress.

I've come across so many beautiful patterns in the last year, all I've been missing is the ability to make a decision! I'll share my 3 favourites, and maybe by the end I'll have picked a winner.

Photo from Veera's blog

The first is the Still Light Tunic from Veera. I adore this tunic! It's not quite a dress, but would be perfect over some winter tights. What I find daunting is the fact that it's knit with fingering weight wool and I have the attention span of a gnat. I love the total casual but interesting shape, as is common in all of Veera's designs. Love 'em.

The next 2 dresses are both from Cirilia Rose. I'm pretty sure every dress I've found and thought was cute were hers. Both of these are knit with worsted weight wool, so they would go substantially faster which is super appealing.

Photo from Twist Collective

Kiloran is drop dead freaking gorgeous. Need I say more? If I were to choose this one, I would make a couple of small modifications to it. I would make the sleeves a little slimmer, omit the buttons on the front and reduce the fullness of the skirt a tiny bit. I'm pretty bottom-heavy, so I like to keep that in check as much as possible :) Knitting this in Ultra Alpaca would be so cozy and warm, too! I don't know what kind of colours I would want to do, but I'm really digging this monochromatic grey version.

Photo from Ravelry

The last, and most likely candidate for being knit this decade, is Shinjuku. As was the case with Cirilia's fall book, I want everything in this one. I'm waiting until I hand in my last paper to order the yarn for all the projects. (I deserve a yarny treat, right?) I love the circular yoke increases and subtle striping of this dress. The dilemma with this one is picking colours! I adore the combination that the sample was made with, but I'm having a hard time tracking down one of the colours. So, I've come up with a couple other candidates.

Which one do you guys like best? I'm leaning towards the red on top, but the other ones are so delightful too. With that, I'm hoping 2011 will be the year I knit myself a dress! Or 2. Or maybe 3. Have I lost my mind?