Hjarta Dress Review

Here we are on Day 1 of the year 2025. I was hoping to have a video to go along with this post but Covid/RSV/Flu symptoms have decided that a post will have to be enough. Whatever virus is stealing my energy has not stolen my internal joy!!!

I finished my Hjarta Dress on 12/31/24. 10 weeks and 2 days from cast-on to completion. So as a recap to this epic make for me, we'll go back to 2023. Yes, 2023 in November I found this pattern in the Shetland Trader edition of Pom Pom Publishing. I ordered the yarn, casted on and 3/4 of the way up this bottom up dress, I realized, ITS TOO TIGHT. The devastation was real. So she sat in the corner, untouched for a few weeks, then I decided to frog it and just accept that I made the wrong size choice. As it often happens for the determined and stubborn, I wanted my dress lol, so I ordered new yarn, in new colors and casted on again.

I had never actually done a documenting type of video for a project so I wasn't sure how to proceed, but I did do a weekly progress video showing how far I was getting every Sunday. 10 videos later we arrive here. To the final sleeves and collar.

During one of these weeks, I was realizing that the models height in the pattern was a clean 5 inches taller than me meaning if I knit according to the actual lengths, this dress would be too long for me. As it happens, if you change the amount of rows you do, then other things get affected along the way, and sure enough, when it was time to pick up stitches for the sleeves, I didn't have enough to pick up the way it was written so I had to finagle the rate I picked up and just make it work.

Next hurdle with the sleeves, I felt like it would be too long knitting according to the directions, but considering my 2024 mantra has been to trust the designer, I decided to just follow the pattern and while it was much longer than the photo, I am very happy with the Avant Garde look of it all.

At 4:09 pm I wove in the last end of this dress and clocked it as completed in 2024. Why is this such a big deal to me? I don't know, maybe becase this was THE project that grabbed my heart and its finally mine. Maybe because it was a failure the first time around and normally I wouldve just picked another project but I stuck with it and made it to the finish line. Also, maybe its because this was everything in a project that hated lol, bottom up, small needles, and color work.

So what did I learn, I learned that I am not easily defeated. I learned that despite a failed first or second try, if you want it bad enough you will keep trying and it WILL eventually work out. I learned that I do have the perserverance to silence my own negative self talk.

Isn't it weird that knitting, a hobby to most, would be teaching you lessons for life. I look forward to this new year of knitting and elevating some skills. I am still going to try my best to avoid bottom up, but will not shrink back in fear if its a end product I really want.

If you want to watch the journey of the dress, weeks 1 through 10 are below. Hoepfully I'll be less congested by the weekend to do an appropriate final update on this dress.