Spells only do what they say they do, and although the DM's free to play up the practicalities of weird long-term spell effects, unless the description of the spell cloud of knives says it can hurt you in the ways you describe, it should't be able to. There's no mention of a cloud of knives stabbing the caster if he trips, stabbing the caster's friends while they play cards, stabbing the caster's girlfriend while they're intimate, stabbing the caster's food while he's eating, or anything. That just doesn't happen. It's magic, but it's a codified, consistent, reliable, almost scientific magic with a set range of effects and results. The DM can still mess with you, but that's house rules territory, and he should be crystal clear about what those house rules are, not force you to figure out how to make it go. (Unless, of course, your character really is the first cleric who has ever had this idea in that campaign universe's history.)
If you're allowed to fluff the spell in such a way, have all the daggers point down, hover by your knee, follow you by floating flat parallel to your shoes, or whatever to emphasize they're out of your way. It's D&D, after all--everyone's armed anyway, so what difference does it make if you're armed with a greatsword or a cloud of knives?
As an aside, being constantly surrounded by blades from a D&D 3.5 standpoint isn't that big of a deal because there's already a precedent for a similar effect with ioun stones (DMG 260-1). The stones don't--according to the description--prevent folks from sleeping (although stones can be more easily stolen when the bearer sleeps), acquiring nourishment, or interacting with others.
But there's really nothing you can do to if the DM is determined to punish you for the persistent cloud of knives, but having things circling a PC's head and being rewarded for it instead has been present since 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons.
“There is no point in doing this [from a game mechanic perspective].” The sorcerer is just the stronger class, and even the feature-heavy first level of bard does not compare to simply having better spells sooner (see 1. Spellcasters should not multiclass in this answer for more details). Thus, the best mix of nine levels for bard or sorcerer is Sorcerer 9. That said...
Sublime Chord
The best way to multiclass bard and “sorcerer” is to not have any sorcerer levels at all, but rather take the sublime chord prestige class from Complete Arcane. This class requires Bardic Mustic and 3rd-level spells, but rather than progress bard spellcasting, it has its own spellcasting with 3rd- to 9th-level spells from the bard and sorcerer/wizard lists. This spellcasting is Charisma-based and spontaneous. It also progresses bardic music, and gives several special “magic themed” songs.
So a Bard 10/Sublime Chord 10 casts as a 10th-level bard and also has separate spellcasting with spells of up to 9th-level that come from the sorcerer/wizard spell list (or bard list). It has the ability with music of a 20th-level bard, except some of the songs are changed to be more “magic themed.”
Since spellcasting is the only sorcerer class feature aside from the familiar, having spontaneous Charisma-based spellcasting off of the sorcerer/wizard list, and then taking the Obtain Familiar feat, makes you effectively identical to a sorcerer. But this progression is much smoother, you end up with level-appropriate power at higher levels, and sublime chord is really cool. The only problem here is that, before 11th level when you take your first level of sublime chord, you have no mechanical representation of being a sorcerer. But bard and sorcerer spellcasting are fairly similar, and you can take Obtain Familiar at Bard 1, so it should be easy to continue to call yourself a sorcerer at lower levels.
Spellswording
Worth mentioning: Champions of Valor has a variant paladin, the harmonizing knight, that gets Inspire Courage +1, 1/day instead of at-will detect evil at 1st level. In the Forgotten Realms, this requires you to worship Milil, a goddess of music; in other settings, it would have to be adapted to some appropriate patron. Anyway, all paladins get the excellent Divine Grace at 2nd level, adding Charisma bonus to all saving throws. As such, Paladin 2/Bard 8/Sublime Chord 10 becomes an excellent variant on the above build: you trade 1 daily use of Inspire Courage for full martial weapon proficiency, a bit more HP, +1 BAB, and adding your Charisma bonus to all saving throws. Since your Charisma should be high, that is a very nice bonus. Adding paladin is not an option for all characters, of course, but if it is, do consider it.
For spellswording as a bard, whether you dip paladin or not, I strongly recommend the Snowflake Wardance feat from Frostburn, if you have that book. Other excellent options include the harmonizing weapon property and crystal echoblade weapon from Magic Item Compendium.
Finally, if you have Tome of Battle, taking a level of crusader for the Song of the White Raven feat is an awesome option, dramatically amping up your physical prowess while allowing you to start performing Inspire Courage as a swift action. It also opens up the interesting possibility of using the jade phoenix mage prestige class to advance sublime chord spellcasting, which would be ideal. Note that Paladin 2/Bard 7/Crusader 1 still just qualifies for sublime chord, too, if you want to do both. I recommend taking the crusader level at precisely 9th level, so you can simultaneously take Song of the White Raven, and have Initiator Level 5 so 3rd-level maneuvers and stances are available to you.
Race
Generally speaking, race isn’t all that important; human is probably your best bet just because bonus feats are awesome. But anything without a penalty to Charisma or Constitution is probably fine (bonuses to Charisma are really rare and always paired with a penalty to Constitution, so there is little to be gained there). Even penalties to Charisma or Constitution are bearable, but why would you?
However, in the case of anyone with bardic music, the benefits of being a dragonblooded race have to be mentioned. And since there’s a dragonblooded human race, silverbrow humans from Dragon Magic are almost-certainly your best option. They trade the humans’ bonus skill point for the Dragonblood subtype, which among other things qualifies you for the excellent Dragonfire Inspiration feat from the same book. Highly recommended.
See Also
Best Answer
Actually, the Leadership feat would work well for this. Leadership grants a cohort (a single high level follower) and followers (several low level ones). You could take the cohort and simply never claim the low-level followers.