Mirepoix Bodice 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 (which was the recommended yarn).

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!

Inception!

My current project is the Mirepoix Bodice [Fall 2007 Interweave Knits], and I am a member of the Mirepoix Bodice Knitalong, also (sidebar).

This will be my first fair isle project. I think it's a really beautiful sweater; I've never done fair isle before because I'm generally not interested in the more traditional patterns, but this one has a very modern style to it.

I am knitting it with elann's Pure Alpaca Fina on Knit Picks Options needles, US sz.4. I decided to make it in more oceanic colors; the main color is a peacock teal, and the fair isle uses a lighter spruce, a light green they called peridot, a dark brown, a somewhat lighter brown, a curry orange, and a golden yellow.

I'm very pleased with the colors. It's always kind of a crap shoot when you pick colors on the computer; sometimes they will be amazingly different than what you had on your monitor. I got lucky this time though. The colors I received are almost identical to what I thought they would be.



So far I have about five inches of the ribbing done on the body. I'm thinking of lengthening it, because I hate when sweaters are too short, but I'm pretty anxious to get to the fair isle, so I might not!