BTSS 2011 (Chey Version)

It's that time of year again... time for me to set aside my selfish inclinations for hand knit items and knit for someone else.....


........my children.



I started the tradition in 2008 (Eli's Grade 2 year) with This sweater for Eli,  followed by sweaters in  2009 and 2010. I also started Chey's BTSS tradition last year. This year the whole BTSS (That's BACK TO SCHOOL SWEATER) kind of snuck up on me. I hadn't really planned anything for either child and was sort of thinking maybe I'd skip it.... traditions be damned.....  but when I saw a skein of Madelinetosh DK yarn in Mansfield Garden Party.... I knew it would become something for Chey....... the only problem was that there were only two skeins left. OK... it wasn't really a problem, since I decided to buy them anyway and try to figure out what to do with them later....... in the end,  I decided to knit a short sleeve cardigan and finally cast on three days ago....

My plan was to knit a top-down, steeked (steeked means cut... sort of) cardigan and planned my knitting accordingly with a four stitch panel of stockinette between the button bands. Adding these stitches works perfectly for the crochet steeks I like to use. I found some remnants of fingering weight yarn in a complimentary palette and choose a crochet needle that was several sizes smaller than my knitting needles (I probably could have gone down at least one or two more sizes). Using a lighter weight yarn and small crochet hook helps to prevent the crochet steeks from stretching and pulling the line of knitted stitches, causing bunching and curling in the finished garment. I then started crocheting up one of the two centre lines of stockinette.

Once that was completed, I started crocheting a second line of crochet down second of the two centre lines of stockinette

This leaves a nice little set of ladders to cut.......

and cut.... I did.....

I prefer the crochet method of steeking because it seems to leave a nicer edge with very few stray bits of cut yarn

Finished sweater........ still needs to be blocked (the sweater is a bit stiff and curls a tad, but I know a good soak with fix it up real nice..... )

BTSS 2011, part I of II is complete.....