Steeks

If you don't know what steek means, here is the short explanation: steeking is a technique that involves cutting knitted fabric and then doing your best to fix the awful mess you end up with. OK, that's not exactly what steeking is, it actually involves preparing the fabric first so that you avoid the mess.

A lot of people are terrified of cutting knitted fabric and, no matter what you hear experts say, they have good reason to be. I've tried steeking two times and both times I've ended up with an ugly mess. So if you want my advice, never attempt it on an actual project. Steek some swatches until you get everything right, and then steek some more swatches until we're sure that you really have gotten everything right.

Kate Davies (*) has written a wonderful tutorial on this technique. You can't get better than this, this tutorial is incredibly detailed and the photos are amazingly useful. It runs for 4 posts in her blog: the first post gives an introduction to the technique, with lots of points to take into consideration before you start (like for example the best and worst yarns to use); the second describes the actual procedure for executing a steek, which involves reinforcing and cutting; the third describes a finishing technique she calls the sandwich, which is perfect for perfectionists, but maybe a little too much work for the modest knitter; the last post answers some questions that readers have asked in the previous 3 posts.

However, Kate Davies technique is not the most standard, for example, most people sew the fabric for reinforcement, instead of the crochet technique that Kate uses. Here is a good tutorial on a simpler steeking technique, which yields good enough results. And here is an even more complete tutorial that compares these two techniques and adds another finishing technique.

(*) I can't believe I haven't featured one of her designs in my eye-candy series, it can't be true. The photo on the right is from one of them. It is knit in the round, for simplicity, and then steeked.