I Don't Know if I Can Do This

My progress on the Bountiful Bohus has been quite fast ... I started it on 10 October, and this is where I am now:

It fits nicely, though the armpits are not yet sewn shut. I pulled it over my head, and it was nice and loose, but not too loose, and the arms went all the way down to my hand (it was meant to be 3/4 sleeves, but I don't like those). It's a wonderful pullover. Only one problem ... it's not meant to be a pullover. It's a CARDIGAN.

I have to cut my lovely sweater up the middle to make it a cardigan. It's much faster to knit in the round (going around in a continuous circle on 2 circular needles, no purling) than it is to go back and forth (knitting one row, purling back). I am not a fast purler. In retrospect I could have adapted the pattern to make it a cardigan, but that would require the use of my mortal enemy, math, and math's crafty evil sidekick, graph paper. And colored pencils, which are really kind of fun.

Here is the wiki entry for steek. They are commonly used for arms, but in this case, it's to make a cardigan out of a pullover. I get the gist of it, but I am not a seamstress! I have a sewing machine ... a nice little Janome. I just can't get the hang of those little bobbins, and the thread usually comes out all tangled, or I just mess it up somehow. But there's no way around it -- I don't trust my hand-stitches to something this important. I'm going to have to bit the bullet, down a shot of brandy, and just have at it.

Not today, though. Maybe tomorrow. Here are some more lovely pictures of the sweater, pre-steeking:

The pattern didn't quite turn out right, but I'm not sure where I went wrong. It looks okay from a distance.

And I didn't mess up the cables.












So, there is that ... an almost finished object. I have to steek it, cut it, then knit on the button band and install buttons. This is probably going to be the most tedious part of the sweater, but I look at it optimistically. I'll be learning three new techniques. It's good for the brain to learn new things!

I don't have any other FOs or WIPs to show. I have been consumed by this sweater. I will finish out this blog post with what was the alternate subject: "I Just Want to Make the D**n Bed."

Making the bed is a daily activity that drives Petunia insane. Flipping covers around is for her like waving a cape in front of a bull. No matter where she is, she comes flying into the room and up onto the bed, diving underneath the covers, wild-eyed and crazy.

She looks calm in this picture, right? Like she's napping? Trust me, she is not. She is waiting for me to reach down to straighten the cover, then she'll attack.

At least the dog is calm.