Shapely

"A curve is the loveliest distance between two points."

- Mae West

This is the vest I dreamt of when I was sick with the flu.  Honest.  It's really a vest.  I'm not sure, but this could be the steek-y-est thing I have ever made.  So far there are 5 steeks, and I'm anticipating at least one more.  Cool, no?  Here's a flat view:

Now you can tell it's a vest, right?  I know.  Me either.  So the stranded part is kind of an Empire-waist deal, above which are some increases for fullness over the bust, and then just garden-variety stripes.  At the armholes, things go a bit wierdy, where I hold off some live stitches (why cast off if you're just going to pick up again right above them?) for armpits, then cast on new steeks, shaping the armhole curves with decreases at their edges.  After a while of that, I did the same stitch-holding maneuver for a neckline, with some more adjacent shaping.  Then last of all, I held off the back neckline the same way, and shaped next to it.  By that time I had to change to DPNs, but I'm pretty sure it will work out the way I hope.  For those who have taken my steeks classes, this is a perfect example of how thinking in terms of CUTTING for shape will change the way you approach knitting the shaping. N'est pas?

All of which returns me to my grounding premise:  We all are sculptors of string.  Think about it: what could be cooler than taking a single string and turning it into fabric?  Nothing, except turning that single string into an actual garment, with real live tailoring that causes it to fit around human body parts.  No mean feat, that. 

So do me a favor, will you?  The next time you find yourself at some coma-inducing social event where non-knitters are passing around their business cards (I think this is the non-canine equivalent of butt-sniffing), tell somebody what you really DO.  And by that, I don't mean highway patrol officer, patent attorney, or neurosurgeon.  I want you to tell the next dumbass who tries to define you by your occupation that you are a Sculptor.  If you have ever turned the heel of a sock, you know I'm right.  You are Sculptors of the highest order, my friends.  And your medium? 

String.