blue belle!

Here are the first photos I've taken
(as modelled by my lovely assistant Myrna)
of my current project "blue belle" Myrna is a bit slimmer than I, so the work is a bit drapier on her than me.
On me, it is quite fit-and-flair, and very flattering indeed.

This is knit entirely in the round with increases and decreases for shaping. I was under the impression that I'd posted my sketches for this one, but that does not seem to be true.

So, see below for my artist's rendition of what I'd like this to be like:

Still to come are: Arms- sleeves- I've got 'em, even if Myrna doesn't, and I intend to cover them. They will be long, slightly flared with purled trim.

Also to do:
A high ribbed turtle neck, purled trim at the hem, and, the coup de resistance( or, perhaps, the coup de grace), steeks up the front and a zipper!

In layman's terms it means that after all of this hard work, I will risk it all by cutting up the center seams to open the garment up into a cardigan!
whoopee! I do live for danger....

This project has been so much fun-
and the beauty part? No Pattern!

just knit, try on, knit try on, adjust, add, try on.
how freeing....
(I take NO credit for "designing" this garment-The basics for this came from Stephanie Japel's excellent instructions on her Glampyre knits site for the raglan swaeter from the top down, plus many other inspirations and advice already out there. )

What does not show up well in the photos:
how lovely the llama/alpaca wool is, how rich the color, and how unbelievably frigging cool those gussets are!
I love gussets anyway, and these just shape the whole thing so marvelously....
this is (famous last words) truly painless sweater making.

This is indeed the same yarn I had in my shower all those months ago- for once I did as I said I would, and am USING UP MY STASH!!!

How very virtuous I feel. Not really- this stuff is so lovely and tempting it would be impossible NOT to use it. I have lots of other stuff that require more imagination and foresight...

Okay, so onwards- sleeve it is!

spheres...

OK, so here is my "soccer ball" in progress, an odd, knobby affair with pointed sticks and glowing green rubber ends.
Now I am in the stuffing stage, and hope to post the finished object very soon indeed.
I learned a lot doing this project, and feel very confident about making all kinds of 3d structures.
However, this project was likened by it's author on the site "needle exchange" as being "the Garfield the Cat of Knitting projects", translated, this means it's easy and great for the very lazy among us. I am not lazy but am, apparently quite stupid: I had to redo constantly on this- I would blithely knit up a 5 sided shape when a 6 sider was needed, etc....
this is luxuriously knit in hand spun hand dyed goods from "Done Rovin'" farms in Maine- the dark red is wool, the Monet colored hexagons are silk and alpaca. The wool was nice, but the real reason for the silk and alpaca becomes clear the minute it's on the sticks: it glides and flows like water cascading, and it pure tactile poetry on the fingers....



This picture shows it semi-stuffed- I ran out of cotton balls mid way.
It has, as you can see, a charming sputnik-like quality, pointy but not terribly fierce.