Here is the progress on the purple peacock cardigan.  OK, so I thought I could make a rectangle and put a button (or something) where my hand is and have the front just sort of  hang open, but that totally won't work and these pictures show you why.  In the side view, you can see that the front points of the rectangle point down and look stretched out .  The vertical lines of the pattern bend around from the back in an unflattering way:  along my back, they curve from top to bottom (looks good), but in the front they point down and back as if being wrapped around a bulging barrel (not so good).

In the front view, you can see that the vertical lines of the pattern are pointing out in an upside down V from my hands, which gives the illusion that my gut is bursting forth and rending the the sweater in two.

The back view of the sweater looks pretty good.  Here you can see how the pattern should flare a little at the bottom edge.  There should be about two extra lines of motifs on both sides.  The flare should be mirrored in the front so the garment would hang correctly.

I knew before I made the rectangle that if I wanted it to look fitted I needed to make it hourglass-shaped, but a combination of (a) laziness and (b) hope that the pattern stitch would be super stretchy let me take the easy way.  Isn't it funny how taking the "easy way" usually ends up as more work in the long run.

This time, though, I'm sort of saved from the extra work because I realized after making this rectangle that I don't have nearly enough of the purple yarn to make the cardigan I want to make ... unless I change it to a spaghetti strap cardigan.

This won't be the end of the peacock cardigan ... or the purple yarn.  I posted the pictures to my Flickr account so I could make notes about the things I'm pointing out in this post.