Michelangelo's David Crocheted Sweater

My sister has asked me what  I am currently working on.
I will say that it is another tunisian crocheted afghan.

But, I thought it would be fun to make it a sort of Mystery Project and not tell you all exactly what the image is going to be.
I will try to update it daily, (Hah!) and see if you will be able to guess the image as it unfolds, (or actually forms), as I stitch.

A couple of months ago I bought this big basket of yarn from Goodwill. (see photo)

I thought they were mostly what I'd call flesh tones and had an idea for this project.

(The green tags on the labels say Walmart .88 cents. When was yarn ever .88 cents? My keyboard doesn't even have a cent symbol on it!)

So, here you see the start of it. I have about 2-3 inches done of alternating white/off-white and ecru stripes. (The pattern I'm using called for all ecru but I'm using what I have from the Goodwill yarns first. I thought it would be more interesting to mix it up anyways. If I run out I always have more colors in my stash. Maybe not Simply Soft but whatever.)

The pattern has only three colors called for. They are ecru, sable, and camel. 

These are off-white, eggshell, Light country peach, country peach, and peach brandy.

I have put my crochet hook in the photo as well. It's a cabled size J Susan Bates Silvalume 10  US 6.0mm

I've finally begun an interesting color in the middle bit there.That's country peach. There would really only be two colors out there, the ecru and peach, if I hadn't decided to stripe it up. If that gets too complicated I may regret doing that because it does mean double the yarn colors and, consequently, more of a tangle problem as I go along. 

*********************Day Two*****************



Well, it's raining out today so I took the photos inside.

To answer CC's question about "Flesh Tone" colors; Yes.

There is a splash of the darkest peach in there now and I am fast running out of the white/off-white and ecru.
I will definitely need to go stash-diving today. Fortunately, this rainy day is the perfect weather for crafty projects. *********************Day Three***************** It's still too wet to bring the project out to photograph.

I got a lot done but my hands and fore arms were really hurting me all night long. I shouldn't work on it much today but I know I will.

Found some more ecru and white and off-white and stuck them in the basket for when I run out, (which I know I will).

It's starting to get more complicated with a lot more threads going. Tangle City. The bottom kept curling up on me so I folded it under for the shot. There's about another inch of the boring white/ecru under there.

*********************Day Four***************** It's slowing down now with all the added colors and my hand hurting.

I just sort of dumped the yarn there for the picture. Once I begin crocheting again today it all has to be sorted and straightened out.

There's a smidge of the lightest peach color on the left side. They'll be more of that coming. It's an added fourth color that the pattern doesn't really call for. But since I have it I'm throwing it in to.

I think you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Not as big as when I uploaded them to photobucket, but still, bigger than what you see here.

*********************Day Five*****************

Hmm, that was a good guess but no, it's not Mike. (Although Mike has said before that I have done a Casey, I've done a Scott and Kristina, and I have never done a Mike yet.
Then I remind him how I gave him the Beatles one AND did a latch hook for him of some symbol from one of his old video games I can't even remember.) Still, they aren't Mikes.

Gasp, I even made a Yee!
And the Star Trek one was kinda for Tim. (Although he's never going to touch it!)

Ooo! I still have to think of a Charley Harper project too! *********************Day Six*****************
Well, since you guessed it I changed the title of the post to Michelangelo's David Crocheted Sweater.

I took this photo before I started working on it today. I just haven't gotten around to uploading and posting until now.
So glad to finally have the eyes done. They are the most important thing and have to look correct. Now it's his crazy hair to deal with.
Here's a link with some interesting facts about the statue.
Some facts about David statue.
I'm using a pattern from a knitting pattern book from 1987 called Knitting Masterpieces by Ruth Herring and Karen Manners.   I bought it from Amazon. I had stumbled upon a blog which posted a photo of their David sweater which they said they had made a long time ago. It was done in blue shades. Well, I hunted it down and had to try it in tunisian crochet.

There's some really neat patterns in here. And the models of the sweaters were some famous people of the time. Their hair styles really make me smile. *********************Day Seven*****************
Wow. A whole week has gone by. I'm doing his forehead now.

He has lots of difficult concern/care lines on his forehead, (because he's about to go tackle Goliath.) I think I read in Wikipedia that Michelangelo's David was unusual for the time because most David depictions had him with Goliath's head already chopped off in his hand. This David doesn't and so, art historians believe, this was the moment when David had decided to go do the deed but hadn't yet. He has a determined look like he has made the choice. Pretty awesome. *********************Day Eight*****************
I spent a lot of time last night weaving in the ends in the back.

It's getting so long I've had to turn my camera and stand on the bed to fit it all in the photo.
I may have to make it a sweater jacket with this image on the back, but we'll see.

He sure looks like he doesn't want to have to go kill Goliath. He looks so worried. LOL! *********************Day Nine*****************
Ok, this is getting huge. I'm nearly finished with the actual graph and then I do the sides over the shoulders. It's way past my knees. I think this will definitely be a sweater jacket with this image on the back or a knit dress which I will never wear.

I need to decide what the other side will be. Just plain ecru or a pattern that's SIMPLE?

The sleeves are supposed to say MICHELANGELO on each side. Lot's more work!


*********************Day Ten*****************
Well, the graph part is done. I took photos of the back to show what I still have to weave in as well as a front photo.

Then I had Mike take a couple of photos of me holding it up so you can see how long it is on me.

That's the back. There's still about another hour or two of ends to weave in.

Here's the front all completed.

And here I am with it in front of me. There's a door frame behind me too so you get the immensity of it.
I've already decided it on being a dress/ ginormous sweater and have begun the back which will be one piece just like this size. I kind of thought it would be fun to wear answering the door on Halloween or something. Maybe with some leggings underneath. 

For the back I'm just using up all the yarn in a harlequin / argyle kind of diamond shaped patterns. I won't post anymore until I have that done too. Then I'll update just before I join them together. Still not sure if it will have sleeves. Long, short, or none at all?

UPDATE

As promised, here's the sweater all finished. See how long it is??!

I added some Fun Fur in Sandstone color around the edges of sleeves, neck and bottom. The bottom still wants to curl up a bit but I'm sure that will go down eventually.

Ok, the back is crazy colored. I was thinking of Neapolitan ice cream. (Italy!) And stone pillars. Marble.

You get the idea I hope.

This was a fun project even if it was a bit impractical. Anyway, it does make a kooky, weird Halloween costume. You could say I was "A Work Of Art"! LOL!!