Here Be Dragons
- Susanna
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Each fall the night sky lights up with shooting stars as the October Draconids pass overhead. Originating from the constellation Draco — Latin for 'dragon' — these autumnal meteor showers occur every year during October 6th thru 10th with a peak around the 8th of October. Draconides is a compound raglan sweater dress that celebrates this annual event with yarn.
Draconides is worked seamlessly from the top down in lace-weight silk mohair held double, creating a fabric that's light, warm, and delightfully fuzzy. An optional empire waist in twisted ribbing adds definition just below the bust, while two sleeve styles — short or long — give the choice between practical or dramatic.
The gentle A-line shaping of the hem gives ease at the hips, while the lace border adds just the right amount of movement and flair. The tunic-length garment can be worn as a sweater dress or layered over leggings for cozy autumn days. The delicate shimmer of mohair makes it equally at home for everyday wear, dressed up for an evening out, or even at festive gatherings. Holiday party, anyone? 🥂
Designed as the fall version of Lyrides, Draconides echoes many of the design elements of its spring version: the same buttoned henley-style neckline with twisted ribbing, two options for sleeve length and style, and an ethereal lace pattern on the hem, reminiscent of shooting stars.
But there are differences, too. For fall I wanted something suitable for the cooler weather and this influenced two design choices: a longer hem and the holding lace-weight yarn double. A third change has to do with how the raglan increases are done: as a compound raglan using lifted increases. Let's take a closer look at these design features.
The pattern features a scooped henley neck with short button bands that start at the same level with the underarm separation. Twisted ribbing around the neckline is done in a single continuous strip. The tops of the button bands are shaped into crisp right-angle corners with mitered increases, simultaneously working buttonholes on the right button placket. Besides sewing on buttons and weaving in yarn ends, picking up stitches for the neck ribbing is the only bit of finishing you need to do!
On the original Lyrides pattern I used decorative double increases along the raglan seams. To keep the lines of eyelets continuous, this unfortunately meant sticking to the constant 8-stitches-on-every-other-row increase rate you see on conventional raglan patterns.
This time I wanted to do a compound raglan instead, improving the upper body fit by relaxing the assumptions of a constant increase rate and the body and sleeves growing at the same rates. This means more customized, more fine-tuned raglan shaping instructions in all the sizes across the size range. Instead of the eyelet decreases, Draconides uses lifted increases at the raglan lines, making the upper body more simple and drawing the focus elsewhere on the garment.
The most obvious thing that sets Draconides apart from its spring counterpart is the length: it's not a sweater, it's a sweater dress. Instead of the hip length on Lyrides, the hem has now been extended to a thigh-high length. From the waist down, the lower body of the garment is subtly A-lined, increasing gently towards the delicate lace pattern on the hem. This makes the body of the dress grace over the hips and gives enough room for walking and moving around.
The bottom part of the hem is worked in a beautiful lace pattern — that very same one featured on Lyrides and its cowl companion, Soft As Starlight. The lace pattern is fairly simple but it does take a bit of concentration to keep the decreases lined up, especially when working double stranded. As usual, the pattern includes both charted and round-by-round written instructions for the lace motif.
Like Lyrides, Draconides also features with two options for sleeve length. You can choose either long bishop sleeves or short straight sleeves. The bishop sleeves are knit with very minimal shaping so that they pool softly at the twisted-rib cuffs. The short sleeves, in contrast, have no shaping at all but end similarly in twisted ribbing. This time I opted to knit the short-sleeved version for my sample garment but you can see how the long-sleeved option look in many of my test knitters' dresses.
To ensure a good fit in the shoulders and upper body, pick a size based on upper-bust circumference, then add vertical bust darts if necessary. The pattern includes ready-made instructions for B-cup (sizes XS to M), D-cup (sizes L to 4X), or F-cup (sizes 5X and 6X) darts but you can calculate custom bust shaping based on your own measurements.
If you wish, you can also do an empire waist on your dress by adding a strip of twisted ribbing just below the boobs. Like bust shaping, the empire waist is optional. Leaving them out gives a more streamlined, straightforward silhouette to the garment.
Draconides is available in 10 sizes from XS to 6X, and is intended to be worn with approx. 5 cm or 2 inches of positive ease for a figure-hugging look. Finished body circumferences (omitting optional bust shaping) range between 77–168 cm or 30¼–66 inches. Finished bust circumferences including the suggested bust darts range between 81–182 cm or 32–71¾ inches but this can be adjusted based on your body measurements.
For my fall-colored sample dress I used Novita Tuuli (60% mohair, 40% viscose, 225 m/25 g, 246 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway 621 meteorite. Lace-weight silk mohair creates a shimmering halo whereas holding the yarn double gives it enough body to the fabric to be warm even in the fall weather. Despite this the garment is incredibly light: my size S, short-sleeved sample dress weighs only 165 grams!
Similar yarns to Novita Tuuli include:
Filcolana Tilia (70% mohair, 30% silk, 210 m/25 g, 230 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway 364 chai
Garnstudio DROPS Kid-Silk (75% mohair, 25% silk, 210 m/25 g, 230 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway 50 caramel
Isager Silk Mohair (75% mohair, 25% silk, 212 m/25 g, 232 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway 63 (no name — just a number)
Rowan Kidsilk Haze (70% mohair, 30% silk, 210 m/25 g, 229 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway 731 bronze
To knit Draconides you'll need fluffy lace-weight yarn in the following quantities:
for the short-sleeved version: approx. 1570–3710 m or 1720–4060 yd
for the long-sleeved version: approx. 1930–4360 m or 2110 –4770 yd
The yardages might seem insanely high remember that the yarn is used double-stranded throughout. Having said that… many of my test knitters didn't! If you'd like to use one strand of yarn instead, pick a sport- or DK-weight yarn that gives you the gauge of 18 sts and 29 rounds per 10 cm or 4 inches.
For the single-stranded dress you'll need half the amount of yarn:
for the short-sleeved version: approx. 790–1860 m or 860–2030 yd
for the long-sleeved version: approx. 970–2180 m / 1060–2390 yd
Size-by-size yardages for both the double- and single-stranded options and short- and long-sleeved versions are available on the pattern page.
The pattern for Draconides is now available for purchase in my pattern shops on Payhip, LoveCrafts, and Ravelry (seizure warning). I'd love to see which color you picked for the dress! Share your creations on Instagram using the hashtags #draconideshenley and #talviknits. Tag me, @talviknits, so I can find your project.
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