I'm quite relieved to say that over the long weekend I finally finished the Balthazar Monstrosity.
OK its not quite that bad, but like so many Balthazar's before it... it looks much better on the hanger than it does on my body!!

(we've gotten a new fandangled camera that I'm not totally sure how to work yet so some of the pics are not that great or may not really be in focus!)

One major stuff up: I've read that the rib on the bottom doesn't flatter a lot of people's hips cos it stretches a lot. So I only did about 2" of ribbing. Problem is that I'd increased the number of cast on stitches and did 2x2 ribbing instead of 1x1 cos its a lot stretchier. Then knit 2 together every 3rd stitch to get back to a number that was close to what i should have cast on for.

Consequently the ribbing wasn't too tight but was WAAAAY too short and it slanted upwards where the V joins are. To correct this I had to pick up stitches along the cast on edge.... which is what created the line you see in the pic above. I tried dozens of ways to pick up stitches but they all resulted in this line... I guess that's what you get for needing to stitch in the opposite direction.

To compensate for the slanted rise in the middle I did about 6 short rows then continued around for another couple of inches.

It's a rather strange garment... the bulky fabric implies that you'd wear it to keep warm but them the short sleeves leave your arms exposed, not great for a cold night but too warm to wear at night in summer.

Those two lines - one just under the arms and the other about and inch from the ribbing are where i put the stitches on lifelines to try it on. Unfortunatly the lifeline yarn I used was much too small and affected how the stitches sit. I guess if I blocked it they might fix themselves.

I haven't received any of my eBay yarn orders so I'm working on the Orangina in the silvery coloured 4ply cotton. Its going to take forever the yarn is so thin!!

I have a feeling that's going to be a long project too... sigh! but it looks so great!