The Vine Lace Pattern on the bottom

One of my favorite knitting books of all time is “Mason Dixon Knitting.” I saw the “After Dark Nightie” and decided I wanted to make that as my first post-Shayna (my daughter) project.  Never on to take things lightly I decided to make a dress instead of a nightie because who wants to go through all that work and not be able to show it off to the world???  During my pregnancy I met the writers of the Mason Dixon book at Abundant Yarn in Portland,and they had on display a pair of baby jeans that’s Kay Gardiner has published on Knitty.com (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTblu.html  ).  I feel in love with jeans, made two pair and in the process discovered Rowan Denim - you wash it in warm water with your jeans and dry it.  No pampering this yarn!  I decided to make the After Dark Nightie with Rowan denim because with a toddler I need to be able to wash whatever I make and I like the colors/shades.  But here’s the caveat - I need to account for 20% vertical shrinkage.  I got started and ended up ripping out the vine lace pattern several times because I kept messing up for whatever reason.  Any new parent will understand that babies cloud the brain.  I took a week of work to clean and knit and got the vine lace portion finished.  I knitted the pattern on straight needles for 5 inches.  I found it really helpful to use stitch markers every 9 stitches to keep track of where I was in the pattern.  Stitch markers - don’t leave home without them!