I'm either really brave or really stupid...

These are pictures taken last Sunday when I decided (at midnight) that I wanted to try to cut this baby up the middle before I went to bed.  As my post title suggests, I was either really brave or stupid because I know that if my crocheted steek failed, there was absolutely no way I was EVER going to get to sleep that night.  Did I happen to mention, that I have NEVER crocheted a steek before and that I learned it watching demos on YouTube?  I'm leaning more towards stupid right now....  And here's a link to the demo video I used, in case you ever wanted to know how to crochet a steek.

 

So, this is a shot of the completed steek.  I was able to follow the demo pretty well and thought it looked pretty good.  It took we a good couple hours to finish it and I started at 10:00pm after finishing knitting the final portion of the collar on the neck.  So, anyway, here's a action shot of me cutting my cardigan. 

While I wasn't feeling too nervous at the time, I did ask Brian to come in and offer bother moral and photographic support.  It was so strange cutting between the stitches and watching them almost pop apart.  I'm telling you, this techniques is not for the faint of heart!

So, here she is!  All cut down the middle and no, my cardigan didn't unravel slowly before my eyes.  My goal was to get her done so I could wear her to work on Tuesday and knitting that night, but that goal was a complete failure.  I still had to close up the arm holes and pick up and knit stitches on both side of the steek for the button bands and those proved way too much to do in one evening.  I did manage to graft the arm holes together using the kitchener stitch, a great technique for knitting two pieces together virtually without a seam.  A good video for how to do the kitchener stitch is here.  And I also knit one button band and got a few rows into the other one before calling it quits are a ridiculous hour (probably 1am).

 However, at this point, she's been done for four days.  I just haven't been able to get any good pictures to share yet.  But, with this lovely change in the weather and me having a couple days off to enjoy the daylight hours, I should have some final product pics in the next few days.  More importantly, on Wednesday of this week, I was finally able to wear my beloved cardigan :D

The Sweater Knitter Lives!

Wow, that was a long time without a post.  In addition to not having a lot of time to blog lately, I haven't had a whole lot of time to knit either and thus no update on my beloved Bountiful Bohus Cardigan.  Now, however, I feel I have made enough progress that I can share.  I have just finished the last colorwork chart of the yoke of the cardigan and I am sooooo close to being done!  I just have the 18 short rows to shape the neck area, a couple sets of decreases, graft the underarms together, do the crochet steek up the middle, cut the steek up the middle, and knit the button band and attach the buttons. 

Wait..... CUT MY KNITTING?!?!  

Just kidding, I knew I would have to do that : )  Since I made this cardigan in the round, to actually make it a cardigan I have to cut it up the middle.  You do that by steeking or reinforcing the knitting by sewing (or in my case crocheting since I don't have a sewing machine) up and down the area, so when you cut, the knitted piece doesn't fall apart.  Just the concept is frightening to a knitter.  But heck, I know it will work.  Tons of people have done it, I'm not too worried. 

So, that's my update for now.  I'm hoping to finish up all the knitting of the cardigan this weekend and graft the underarms and steek it on Tuesday night at knitting group.  I love my group, they are so good to me and are amazing enablers.  More on my enablement later :D

Ravelympics Update: Days 14, 15, 16 & 17

So, seeing as it is the last day of the Olympics and I am still missing 1/4 of my cardigan, there is absolutely no way I'm going to finish.  But that is okay.  I have worked very hard on it and have accomplished a lot in a very short time period.  I'm thinking I can finish it up in a week or so at a more leisurely pace.  

At this point I've lost count of how many rows I've done other than knowing that I completed the one row that attached the two sleeves and the main body of the cardigan together.  While this is sooo exciting for me, it also has a bit of a downside: This cardigan is a beast!  It is very hard to keep the whole thing on my lap when I'm knitting, so I've made the decision to only work on it at home (and at knitting night - duh!).  I'm really afraid to drag it all over the place in the state it is in (barely attached and wanting to fall off the needles) for fear of an unintentional frogging disaster.

Anyway, I'll keep posting on my progress and hopefully quite soon you will see me wear this beauty in person!

Ravelympics Update: Days 12 and 13

Days 12 and 13

These last two days I have been a knitting fiend!!!  Yesterday those from my fiber group that desired to brave the snowfall in the Worcester area in order to knit en masse got together for great evening.  During our "meeting" I completed the rest of the repeats for the cuff on my first sleeve.  Then tonight I moved on to the plain stockinette section and did a whopping 27 rows and then did 5 sets of the 4 row increasing repeats for a total of 48 rounds of the sleeve knitted in one evening.  Despite all this progress, I wasn't able to finish the sleeve this evening.  Right now it is a little less than 12 inches long and it needs to be 17.  Oh well, I'll finish it up tomorrow and cast on the next one. 
(81 sleeve rows completed)

Ravelympics Update: Days 9, 10 and 11

Days 9, 10, and 11

Over the weekend and today I really accomplished a lot. On Saturday I finished the last two inches of stockinette on the body of the cardigan before starting the short rows for shaping the bust.

(88 rows completed).  

Then on Sunday I worked the short rows and then continued with stockinette until the side of the cardigan measured 16 inches.  I was able to get so much done on Sunday because Tara and I had a knitting play date and really focused of our projects.  

(103 rows completed, main body of cardigan completed for the moment)

Today I didn't have a whole lot of time, but I did get started on the first sleeve this evening and managed 3 repeat of the 4 row cable pattern.  The sleeves (obviously being smaller) should go much faster for me, so I'm hoping to really pick up the pace and hopefully finish by Sunday night.  I have my fiber group tomorrow and an early Ravelympics cast off party on Friday, so I know I'll have plenty of encouragement to keep working hard.

(12 sleeve rows completed)

Ravelympics Update: Days 7 & 8

Days 7 & 8

I have just been working on the stockinette section of the bottom of the cardigan.  Nothing much of interest going on, so I thought I would combine two days.  Also haven't done alot of knitting as I haven't been feeling well. I'm now at 12" with only two more to go until I start my short row shaping!

(80 rows completed)

Ravelympics Update: Day 6

Day 6: Stockinette of Insanity!

I finished the seam shaping and then started the endless rounds of stockinette until the cardigan measures 14".  I'm at 9.5" now, so that means a ton more rows to go.  I'm guessing it will take me 27 more rows to get to that point since my gauge has been pretty good and the gauge for the piece is supposed to be 24 rows and 20 stictes to a 4"x4" square.

(64 rows completed)