I have gone steeking crazy!!

I don't really know if this is a steek, but I think it is. I have a lovely Eileen Fisher sweater that I dug out of the "free or cheap" bin in her original store. I took it even though it was big enough for 2 of me to fit into it because I loved it. It is cotton, and I have washed it in hot water several times and though it is still pretty voluminous, I like it.








Rolling up the sleeves to make them short enough was another story. They looked like I was wearing big fat bagels on my wrists, when they stayed on my wrists, so .......



Made bold by the success of the steek in my blue hoodie, I CUT OFF THE SLEEVES!!

I didn't exactly do it neatly, and the yarn was VERY thin. It was actually 2 strands of cotton wound together, and they did not unravel no matter what I tried. Believe me, I tried. I knew, since the seams were sewed, that the best I could hope for was one row unravelled at a time, but I couldn't get anything to unravel, so I just cut.

Then I worked a US 000 needle (I think that is a 2 mm), into the loops, keeping it on the same row by taking little bits off and making it fit no matter how odd it looked occasionally.


Once I got all the available loops onto the needle it looked like this. Keep in mind that I am, conveniently, knitting a cotton washrag-turned-afghan that is knitted with thin cotton yarn on 3.25 mm needles. And it is all being done with neutral colored cotton. SO.. off I went knitting on those sleeves, 2 rows of stockinette and then about 10 rows of K1P1 ribbing.















Once I got started I could tie up the loose ends and make sure that it wasn't too sloppy. It got to where it looked pretty good.














So here are the sleeves, they are the right length, and the color is close enough so it looks like they were meant to be like that.. unless of course you have a mental picture of that Leonardo Da Vinci diagram and realize that my arms are WAY shorter than they should be based on the sweater...but if you know that you are sophisticated enough to know I am taller than I look..... or not to mention it in any case. Right?

I'm Steeked

Once upon a time, a year or so ago, I became enamoured with a sweater from Sally Melville, knit designer extrordinaire. It was in "The Purl Stitch" which I consider one of my favorite knitting books.

She uses a lot of clever tricks when she makes a pattern and they have all proved very useful going forward with other projects. SO, I made the sweater.

It is the equivalent of a blue sweatshirt with a kangaroo pouch pocket. I loved making it and the pocket with its reverse stockinette edges is an architectural delight. The edges look great with no hems.

HOWEVER (you knew that was coming, didn't you?) Flattering it was not particularly and HOT it was. It led me to a realization that Sally Melville hadn't had......

Women who tend to always be warmer than the general populace should not wear pullover sweaters made of DK weight yarn.


(That rule might even apply to lighter yarn, and has led me to steer clear of knitting pullover sweaters in general)

So there it sat, unworn, though the color is great on me and that pocket was perfect for dogwalking supplies.


I have been thinking about steeks for almost a year. I have pondered steeks, and talked about steeks and even read a little bit about them.

Gill and Blogless Nicki have both heard LOTS about me pondering steeks. Steeks -- for the unknitting readers -- are when you take a pair of scissors and cut your knitting apart.

Take a deep breath and THINK about that. You just spent 2 months knitting the sucker and now you are taking scissors to it. The thought alone makes me forget to breathe.

As a complicating factor, there was also that blasted Kangaroo pocket that I loved and that was knit into the fabric, not applied afterwards and therefore not removable. SIGH.

That meant that part of what was going to be cut apart was actually 2 pieces that had to be held together to make pockets out of the pouch after they were cut apart

But you know the drill... if you won't wear it you might as well do surgery on it, so I marked the middle of the front with yarn. I sewed a line down either side of the center stitch with a sewing machine and I CUT THE FRONT OF THE SWEATER IN HALF!!!!!!

What you see next is the bifurcated sweater front, just hanging around with its stitches exposed.

The next step, which I didn't document very well, (at all) was to pick up stitches from the cut edges and begin knitting a ribbing out from the edges.

I am sure that you are supposed to do things like count to make sure that there are the same number of stitches on each side.. Let's pretend that I did that.

I was WAY too over the top by that time to even think about counting, or measuring or anything but knitting to make sure it worked.

Someone more into process than product might also have thought about buttonholes, but you aren't reading about someone like that. I just wanted to get it done before it all fell apart in my hands.

I was knitting as though it was going to burst into flames.

There are a couple of other things you should know. I had very little yarn left. I wouldn't have had ANY but while I was making the sweater I had a minor nervous attack about the amount of yarn left and I put a stripe on the hood.

Have I mentioned the sides of the hood met at the neckline when the sweater was whole, so the hood was a complication of the dissection?

That stripe left me with a half ball of yarn to make the front bands.

Well.... Somehow it worked!

The former pullover sweater is now a cardigan. The button bands (though buttonless and buttonhole less) look pretty good, as you can probably see for yourself.

They are generally even and have a similar number of stitches.

No, not exactly the same number but if you are close enough to count to see if they match YOU ARE WAY TOO CLOSE!

I am left with the issue of how to fasten it when the winds up here get blustery, but I think toggles ....

I even have some nice red leather that I could make the (whatever you call the part that goes around the button on a toggle) with.

I think red will look interesting and will draw attention away from any small imprefections that will show up.

To be really sure that everything stays attached, I admit that I stitched the "facings" down on the inside with yarn so that they should never ravel. I don't think steek purists do that, they just trim close to the edge and let it go. I am not a purist.

I think it looks good, and the inspector general, who is in charge of everything knitting, though she has no thumbs, has approved it all.