It is going slower than I expected, but on the other hand, I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I expected either.
I've finished the torso, including the pocket hems, and have proceeded to arms. Once both of the arms are done, I can join them to the body and knit the yoke. This is the first time I've knitted something with steeks like this and I'm really curious to see how they work out in the end.
I prefer knitting in the round, so I'm hoping I can adapt this way of knitting to all my future sweater projects. While knitting Chesterfield was fun and I love the colours, I can't really see myself wearing it much because there is no easy way to regulate the temperature with a pullover. With a cardigan, one can open the front, or close it, or slip it off easily, not so with a pullover. If this steek thing works, I may or may not take scissors to my Chesterfiled. Or I may just rip it all and re-knit with a proper steek. I must rip the yoke anyway, why not the whole torso? It's knit on 5 mm needles and goes much faster than this cardi on 3,25 mm needles.
I've made up the pattern for the flared sleeves, the maths was surprisingly easy this time. No pesky fractions to have to round up or down. The lower sleeve did work out to decreases every 6,5 rounds, but that was perfect as then I could decrease every 6th round for half the length and every 7th for the other half, giving the sleeve a nice curve too.
The short circular needles work really well for the sleeves. They were very fiddly in the beginning because I use the needle length as a lever, and these are too short for that. I found that if I rest the end of the needle in my palm, it works better than if I tried to wrangle my fingers above and below the needle to be able to use the lever action. The resulting fabric with these is so smooth and even, it is totally worth the fuss.