If I can make a suggestion, put a piece of cardboard or a blocking mat under where you're running your scissors. That way you won't accidentally cut a float, and you can work a nice, straight line. Safety scissors are also a good option.
Great suggestion! Thanks for your comment. I also use a piece of cardboard (usually a junk mail flyer) slipped behind my work when I'm sewing seams using the mattress stitch on other tube shaped things like sleeves.
Oooooh, yes; great idea! My daughter and I were wrapping Christmas gifts one year.....scissors got under''''''yes, down under'''''.......what was under? "Gadfry!", as Aunt Mattie would say...... a hand crocheted, (I knit, too), 70" diameter, pineapple table cloth.....Yup, you guessed it!! I had made it, too. It even came out great!! Needless to say, I never, ever.....wrapped another Christmas gift!
Hi Alexsis. great tutorial on seeking. thank you ( me =wolfpelt on Ravelry) my question is ,what yarn did you use for your black and white sweater, it has lovely stitch definition.
+stephen shillitoe Thanks, I'm glad you liked my tutorial! The yarn is Louet Gems Sport Weight. It was an absolute pleasure to work with, and has held up really well so far. It's one of the softest wool yarns I've ever used. I have some more info about the pattern here on my website: www.knitdarling.com/patterns/tiber-cardigan
Hi AD-thanks for your question. Yes, you can successfully steek with any fiber content yarn following the steps in my video. If you are using a yarn that does not felt (i.e. synthetic, superwash wool, cotton, etc.), you should take extra care to secure the steek before you cut the fabric as I have done in the video. You should also create a wide enough steek so that you will still have some wiggle room if your fibers are slippery and unravel a bit more than expected. If in doubt, MAKE A STEEK SWATCH! This will show you how prone your particular yarn is to unraveling. You may also want to enclose the steek afterwards with a ribbon or bias tape sewn to the back side of the fabric which will further protect your steek from unraveling. For your reference, the sweater shown in the video was Louet Gems, which is a superwash wool that will not felt in the wash, much like a synthetic fiber. In the five+ years since I made this sweater, the steek has stayed intact with no signs of unraveling.
If I use the crochet method is there any chance of my floats unravelling or will that just not happen 😂 I'm actually quite looking forward to the steek at this point
Interesting question-Yes and No. Technically, you can follow all the same steps-reinforcing the knitting in two parallel lines and cutting between-and it will have a similar effect to steeking. One difference is that you would have to do a very thorough job reinforcing the fabric because missing even one stitch could be disastrous. I would recommend using a sewing machine to reinforce a horizontal cut. That said, the steeking technique, at its heart, is something you would really only do to facilitate quick and efficient Fair Isle knitting in the round and specifically refers to a vertical cut. If you are knitting a garment and you need to create a horizontal opening, it would be much more efficient to simply bind off and then cast on again than to attempt steeking horizontally.
Thank you for posting this. I'm working on my first sweater and i'm really nervous about the Steeking on the sleeves, but your video makes a lot of sense and I'll be coming back when i get to that point.
