Modeling the Bodice

It took like 2 days to dry, but the bodice is finally ready for modeling! Here I am in my sweater--don't mind the serious expression--it was taken early in the morning (why yes, those ARE pajama pants!) :)



I think the sweater came out beautifully. The unevenness of my colorwork went away in blocking, so that's awesome. I did that extra 1" in the bodice, and I almost think I could've done a little more! The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that it seems to bulge a bit at the point where the ribbing ends and the colorwork begins. It did it pre-blocking as well, so I'm not sure what's up with that.

Can't wait to see everyone else's when they finish! :)

My Finished Bodice!

I can't believe it--I finally finished my Mirepoix Bodice! I just finished the neckline maybe half an hour ago. I still need to block it, but it's done! I tried it on and it fits--the sleeves seem a bit tight, but I'll try to block those a little larger or something, though even if I can't it just makes it more fitted I suppose.

Just trying it on, I'm really glad I added the extra 1" to the bodice part before I began the steeks--I don't think it would've covered my chest fully otherwise.

Anyway, below is a picture of the unblocked sweater. I'll take a shot of me wearing it after I block it. :)

Hiatus

I've put aside the Mirepoix Bodice for a little while so I can work on some Christmas presents. I also have a lot of family stuff happening (as I'm sure we all do!), and I've just decided to focus on the things I have to have done, which means fun fair isle sweater for me are on the back burner. Posts on here have really slowed down, so I think I'm not the only one! Anyway, I'll be back at it once the holidays aren't looming on the horizon. See you all then!

Sleeve Problem

Last night I thought I would start on a sleeve, because it's more portable then all the fair isle, and it always takes me forever to knit sleeves, and when I cast on I thought I had way to many stitches. So, I looked at the schematic, and it has my size knitting 10 1/4" around the cuff. My wrist is only 6" around! In the pictures it looks like a normal sleeve; is there something I don't understand here? I can figure out how to fix it to fit, but it just seemed so wrong, I thought I must be missing something. Does anyone know?

Fair Isle Progress!

I've been working steadily on my Mirepoix Bodice, and I finally have something to post about it! I have a little more than seven inches of the fair isle completed. I've established the neck and armhole steeks; they are about three inches long, and my shaping is almost done.

I'm still really happy with the color substitutions I made on this project. I had a difficult time getting an accurate picture of the colors (for one thing, the orange looks much more garish here than it does in person). I'm also really pleased with how the fair isle looks. I haven't done this technique before, and I was nervous about how it might look. I started off a little loose, but I've gotten a little better at regulating my tension, and now it looks really good.

The alpaca is also behaving better then I had thought it would. It's not sticking together like shetland or anything, but it is felting a little. I'm still going to sew my steeks before I cut, of course, but it gives me a little piece of mind knowing it will hold a bit on its own. I think it's at least as nice for fair isle as superwash wool.

I have to say, this is one of the most satisfying sweaters I've worked on in a while. I'm surprised at how much I like doing fair isle; I guess I can quit avoiding it now! It looks very pretty. I can't wait to get finished and wear it!

Steek Stall

Well, I have now completed knitting the bodice part of sweater, but I still have yet to cut the steeks. I don't own a sewing machine, nor have I used one in years, so I plan to persuade my mom to sew the steeks for me on her machine when I visit in a few weeks.

So in the meantime, there won't be much progress on that front, which is a shame, because I really am anxious to see how it turns out. I just started on the sleeves, but there is not much to see yet. I suppose I took my time getting started on those because I knew I wasn't going to be sewing them in before November.

It's getting close to completion, and yet there are still a few more things to do, like the neckline, and weaving in tons of ends.

Started the Fair Isle Section!

I started the fair isle section on Mirepoix - as this is a pretty small gauge and none of the floats are carried over more than 4 stitches, I haven't been doing anything special to strand them and I think it looks a little loose on the wrong side but still OK. I guess that is better than being too tight and puckering on the right side.