I have been knitting pretty seriously for about 10 years. I have done some color work, but mostly alternating yarns to create stripes. Long ago when I was an innocent and intrepid newbie I embarked on an intarsia carpet bag - it was featured in Interweave sometime in '03 or '04 (and if I was feeling charitable about intarsia I might have looked up the pattern). Thankfully it was felted, otherwise I would have had a multi colored sieve. That bag has long ago left this house, all that remains are small bobbins of Brown Sheep that remind me of my misplaced ambition. So when mom and I decided to sign up for Cherly Oberle's Fall 2014 Knitaway and learned that we would be doing two color stranded work and steeking I was nervous. Not to mention the fact that I was OBLIVIOUS as to what to steek meant. I should have clued in when Cheryl mention in her Knitaway prep notes that we needed "practice" yarn to learn the techniques, because if we made mistakes with our good yarn, well there was no way to recover it...
Steek is Scottish or Middle English for "close" or "shut". Here is my understanding; in knitting it allows us to knit across an opening, creating a "steek" or closed area, which has a twofold purpose. The "steek" allows us to knit with two colors in the round, eliminating the need to purl back in two colors (smart, smart, smart says I), the it makes it a very handy place to pick up stitches to knit borders, sleeves, necks, or any other appendage opening! What you might not know about "steeks", you have to cut into your knitting. You read that correctly, you CUT into your KNITTING. Once you commit to "steeking" there is no turning back.
In the days leading up to the Fall Knitaway, mom and I dug in our vast stashes for practice yarn. We found a treasure trove of nasty acrylic dating back to the days when most of your yarn came from the drug store (and in the case of the yarn I picked, I think it came from the plastic rope section of the hardware store!). The project remained a mystery, it was billed as a cowl, and I think we all had our own ideas as to what "cowl" means. I was excited about knitting in color, but worried as well, since my previous forays were limited and frustrating. We arrived at the Knitaway eager to learn about the project and excited to meet up with two wonderful sisters that we met a year ago. As we all settled in and chatted Cheryl explained the scope of the project and presented the pattern. "Gulp", thought I, "I don't have enough fingers!" As all of us met each other's gaze, I realized we were all thinking the same thing, "need an extra arm". But I knew we were in excellent hands. Cheryl accommodates all knitting styles, my mom and I knit English or "throw" our yarn, several of our compliment are the speediest Continental knitters I have ever seen, and one of our cohort knits in the most fascinating and complicated manner I have ever seen, and I feel like a rube for not paying more attention, I was still struggling with the lack of a extra fingers.
Mom and I relaxed into a combination of English and Continental, so one color is thrown, and the other color is picked up off the left hand in the Continental manner. There is a good reason for remaining consistent with which hand holds which color as it does affect the front of the fabric - who knew! I can't say I took to two stranded knitting like a duck to water, but it made a lot of good sense to me. I am not the most able Continental knitter, but once you learn the rhythm it becomes easier, and I know with practice I will get better. The nice thing about knitting two color stranded in the round is you never ever have to purl back. The scary thing about knitting two color stranded in the round is you have to create a "steek" and then CUT into your KNITTING. In the first two days of the Knitaway we were all lulled into a false sense of calm, "yay" we all thought, "knitting with two colors is fun, its easy, the charts are great to follow".... And if we were all worms this would be perfect, we could knit tubes for days! But we have arms, we have a need for shaping in our clothing. Enter the dreaded "steek"...
Here you can see how being consistent with holding each color in a different hand, you create a consistent fabric on the reverse of the piece.
When you know you are creating a garment, and for this purpose we will use the example of the cowl, that has the need of an opening, but you want to knit it in the round so you can knit the entire garment, you must create a "steek", simply put extra stitches that you knit, creating extra fabric that you will then "capture" so you don't lose your live knitting.
Here you can see the "steek", we knit a border for 20 rows, then placed markers, cast on (in this case using the "e" loop method) an additional 5 stitches. You then knit across them as you follow your color chart. Simple...
Then you continue to knit your garment until you reach the length desired. In the case of this cowl, you knit the pattern, when you finish that you place the live "steek" stitches on waste yarn, I suppose you could bind off if desired, remember the "steek" is going to be cut, it doesn't have to be finished off prettily at all.
So you have five extra stitches (or however many your pattern requires), you mark the center line of the "steek", illustrated here in gorgeous RED ACRYLIC. You then stitch along either side of the center line twice, thus creating two sew lines on either side of the center line. I backstitched on either end of all four seams. Are you terrified yet? Trust me I was, and I did this first on the plastic rope, I mean acrylic practice yarn.
Then comes the thrilling part... you cut along the center line to create a flat piece of knitting.
You cut along the center line...
Do I hear gasps?
Trust me I gasped.
I was concerned that my sewing machine, not the fanciest, would chew up my knitting. I was really please, I didn't even have to adjust the tension or the feeder feet.
Then you resume knitting as normal, picking up border stitches, picking up for a sleeve. I realize that this all sounds rather cavalier, but what I am trying to impress is that "steeks" are not hard or intimidating, nor is two stranded knitting. Where you need to take care in creating a "steek" is making sure that your seams are solid, if in doubt sew another seam. Steeks to create a small ridge under your borders, and so are probably not for every project, but I am planning to knit a two stranded ski sweater, and I tell you being able to knit it all the way with small seam ridges in the armholes and the cowl neck are a very small price to pay.
Below is the cowl cut and stitched.
The cowl ready for a nice pin and some cold weather. If any of you know where NorCal winters went, please be sure to send them back our way.
Lastly here is the practice cowl made out of rope, I mean acrylic. If you can se in the two color ribbing in the second picture there is a subtle change in the dominant color, the white seems pinker - we shifted the left hand color from laying on the back of the knitting to laying on top of the red. I know sounds like a lot of blah blah, but trust me it really does make a difference. I did promise all my Knitaway cohort that I would make a hat out of the blasted Acryls, and that I would take a picture of me and mom planting bulbs later this winter, please note ladies the hat (headband in this case) is ready to go.
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