Celeste Left Half Done!!!

Me again! I have finished the left half of Celeste from French Girl Knits and I am soooo happy! It came out beautiful, and I am really happy with the results. Sigh... I love the yarn. It is Rowan's Kidsilk Haze! I put a picture up of my materials and my finished left half on my bed. (Note the long strings of cotton yarn as makeshift stitcholders :o)

It went surprisingly fast, and I am looking forward to making the left half and finishing the whole project. After that I want to make quite a few other patterns from the book.

I did try it on, and has such a wonderful drape. It has graceful fluidity, and it compliments my figure and movements. The yarn feels soooo wonderful next to the skin. It feels like wearing magic fairy cloth or something :)! I am very proud that I have come this far, and I have learned so much from this project- oh la la short rows, side-to-side seamless construction, that bell sleeves are AMAZING...

Geeze the yarn even smells good in my opinion! Side-to-side seamless construction is also AMAZING expecially with Kristeen Griffin-Grimes's (geeze that's a heck of a lot to type) special kick where she makes it totally seamless except for the kitchener stitch graft up the center back where the right and left halves meet. As you can see in the picture, this pattern is worked in two vertical halves that will be grafted later.

Each half starts at the bottom of the sleeves, which are knit in the round up until about the shoulder area. Then more stiches are cast on and knit across on one side of the shoulder. Once you have knitted across those stiches on one side, pick up and knit down that same side, and now you have stitches on the both sides of the same cast on. The side seam for that half is "sewn" this way. Then the work for the body continues in rows knitting with the these stitches. Right side rows begin at the back hem and progress up and over the shoulder and down to the fron hem. So the construction is side to side as opposed to the traditional bottom-up or top/down sweaters with their vertical construction.

Okay I know this sounds really confusing and scary and hard and oh no no no, but get the book and read the author's instructions and see the pattern and you'll be like "ooh that sounds fun let me do this... and then when you're done you'll be like "wow that was easy, yay"... really I'm so glad I just went ahead and did it. I was afraid at first- this technique was soooo new to me especially since I have only ever made sweaters in pieces and with very basic construction. I am soooo glad I did this- I may never go back to "made-in-pieces" again.