There are so many things I still have to learn about knitting. My latest project taught me a few important lessons. It all started when I saw the adorable toddler dress found in the latest issue (April '07) of Knit N' Style magazine. I thought it would be perfect for Melissa's baby girl, Rowan, who had a birthday coming up. The pattern calls for about 400 yards of mercerized cotton. I substituted Plymouth Fantasy for the Schaefer Laurel that it called for. To make a long story short....the finished dress is very heavy. It feels like it weighs 2 pounds. But after reading the yarn label I realized that is mathematically impossible. I used a little over 3 skeins of yarn weighing 100 grams each. So, the dress weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 325 grams or .7 pounds. I purchased the beautiful Kelly yarn, that I posted about previously, because I didn't like the way my tension looked and because the dress seemed heavy. The Kelly yarn (55% cotton 45% acrylic) weighs 50g per skein. I will end up using about 3.5 skeins for a total of 175 grams or .39 pounds.  That's nearly half the weight! Not only is the weight better, but my tension is much more even with the cotton blend.

So, let this be a lesson to new knitters out there. If you want a light weight summer garment, and the gauge and yarn content are basically the same, be sure to compare the weight of the yarn as well. I wasn't able to get the dress in the Kelly yarn finished in time for Rowan's birthday on Saturday. I guess that's ok since it's freezing outside. Jack and I had fun at her party. She is a beautiful baby. I can't wait to see her in the finished product. I will post pictures of the dresses later!