too scared to steek

Hi, my name is Molly, I knit a lot, and I'm too scared to steek anything.

Admitting it is the first step to recovery, right?

When I attended the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra palace back in October, I bought myself - completely on a whim - an adorable pattern for a fair-isle cat-patterned cardigan. Like, literally a second before I completely an already quite large purchase, I saw the pattern, and made the poor woman add it to my order. 

I then peeked inside to look at the yardages, bought myself some lovely Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply to complete the sweater, and went on my merry way. It wasn't until I got home that I realised that this pattern was constructed with a huge steek. And it specifically recommended not to use superwash wool, like the one I'd specifically bought for the project.

Eek.

First off, I have never in my knitting life actually steeked anything. Why would you want to cut a big slice through an almost finished project? There are so many wonderful things that you can make without cutting a giant hole through it which could ruin everything! So why bother. Needless to say, I have spent a huge chunk of my knitting life just completely ignoring the subject of steeks altogether. If I had only know, would I have bought the pattern? Probably not! What's a girl to do?

I often find that knitting is an exercise in problem solving, and I turned my brain to how I could fix this conundrum. The facts of the situation were as follows:

1. I really did like the cat cardigan pattern

2. I have a sweater's worth of lovely merino yarn, which I don't want to waste

3. Steeks are scary

The solution came to me in a bit of a flash as I was redecorating my house. I have three cones of Lion Brand 1878 yarn which were serving as art-pieces on my mantle until I figured out what to do with them. Well, well. The yarn in 100% wool - not superwash, and in the weight that the pattern recommended. The cardigan pattern calls for three colours, which conveniently fits what I have. And the 1878 cones have LOTS of yarn on them, so if something does go terribly wrong, I haven't wasted a purchase. Besides, with the wool being discontinued, I needed to do SOMETHING with them so they didn't go to complete waste.

The reality is, I have to get over my fear of steeks at some point. I have all the right materials here at my disposal, and pattern I'm excited about making. I need to just throw myself off the deep end. And I'm ready.

Almost.

Because there is also that sweater's worth of Debbie Bliss to deal with first... And instead of tackling my fears straight away, I've decided to use that first, making the Balmaha sweater by Kate Davies. She's a long-standing designer favourite of mine, and why not get some fair isle practice in before cracking into the Sinister Catigan (also, how great of a pattern name is that, really?)