PROJECT COMPLETED!!!!!.....well, almost

Well, while most of my time is taken up with writing my exegesis paper for class, a girl can work on a biblical analysis paper only so long before she has to do something else, so last night before bed, I took some time to work on the blue jumper for Belle. It really is kind of a boring pattern, just going round and round and round the skirt. Yawn. But I was so close to finishing it, I was determined to work on it.

I knew the skirt length was getting close. In the movie, her apron reaches the end of her skirt, so I measured the skirt on the apron. You'll notice all of the DPNs are gone, that's because at this point I have stopped working in the round and am trying to work on it with my circular needle (getting pricked by needle ends in the palm of your hand gets a little annoying, not that knitting needles are really sharp enough to break skin, but still).

And here's the full shot of the skirt and apron together.

Curious to see how it looked with the blouse, I slid the skirt onto the doll. Just almost long enough to start on the bodice part of the jumper. I like the clean picture that the circular needles allow. If only I could figure out how to do the magic loop technique.

Here is after a few rows of the bodice. You'll notice that it's back on the DPNs (but just two of them this time); that's because it was just too hard to work with the circular needle when the dress was essentially still in the round. I was checking the length of the bodice on the doll over the blouse to see if I was going to have to add a couple of rows to the pattern. I know the skirt looks a little odd in the picture, it's because the jumper is on sideways with how I have it on the needles. This picture was just to test the length.

Here's a picture of the jumper off the doll. Again, you are looking at the side of the jumper because it lays flat with just two DPNs in it.

And a picture of the last row before casting it off the needles. If you are wondering why there are two different color DPNs (as well as now five instead of two), it's because the last row requires the casting on of extra stitches for the shoulder straps. I cast on very tightly (probably a hold over from my crocheting), so I need bigger needles for casting on. The green DPNs are three sizes bigger than the red ones which the jumper has been made on.

Though it wasn't the easiest adding the extra DPNs. As evidenced by the picture below, it can get a little needle crowded working on a project this small.

Okay you knitters out there, I have a confession to make. I hate casting off. Why? Because try as I might, I cannot get it to work with the knitting needles. I don't remember where I saw/read this technique, but somewhere I saw that you can use a crochet hook to do your cast off. It seemed so obvious to me! Especially since the cast off is basically a row of slip stitches. So, my confession is that I have to use a crochet hook for my cast off.

And for posterity, the very last stitch on the needle to be cast off. :)

Tada!!! A Jumper!!!! I still have the ends to weave in and the snaps to put on at this point.

And here is the doll with the outfit on.

Does it look anything like the one from the movie?

As in the title of my post, I said it was almost completed. I still have to sew the ends in on the jumper, put another snap on the blouse, put snap(s) on the jumper (I don't know how many it's going to take), and put a snap on the skirt. Then to take final pictures of the outfit on my actual Belle doll! :) I just didn't get the snaps put on last night because when I finished the jumper at 1 AM, I figured I better go to bed to be able to make work. I will finish up the snaps and stuff this afternoon and get final pictures. And yes, K, you will get final pictures. :)

191.5 DAYS REMAINING!