So you've done all the math-y legwork. The stitches at the top of your body tube are divided and held on waste yarn. It's finally time for the shears!

Warning: This post contains graphic images of sweater-cutting. Not for the faint of heart.

Here's my body tube, inside-out and placed over the end of my ironing board. This photo shows what I refer to as the "Yarn Tail Combover". Note that every time I ended/joined a color, I left 6" tails hanging on the WS. I tie knots to join strands, which you may have heard we're never supposed to do. That's only true in Fair Isle knitting, which Permission Denied is not. My yarn contains slippery silk and alpaca. Tying knots is the best way for me to manage it. And I can tie as many as my heart desires, because I'm not going to weave them in. That's right. I'm going to trim them all off and hide them under the same covering I use to hide my cut knitting edges.

First, I do the Combover: With my fingers, I comb the tails so they lie horizontally across the steek. Then I stick them down to the WS of the body tube with painter's tape. Notice that the tape is well away from the area where I'll be securing the steek. Depending which edge of the steek the knot ended up on, I comb the tails away from it and across the steek.

Then I secure the steek with four passes of machine stitching. Is this the only way to secure a steek? Of course not. But it's the best way for this yarn and this project. Come see me in "Eeek! Steeks!" class for more (gobs more) on the subject.

Once the steek is secure, I gently lift the tape away from the body tube, without removing any of the yarn tail strands from the tape.