This is what it looked like before steeking.
What is Steeking? In case you are not up to all the "knitty" Language, it is cutting a piece of knitted garment as if it was "fabric".
In other words just cut off the bits you don't like. I figured this will either turn out great or I'll have to chalk it up to an experiment which went wrong. But I think it worked. I must say it is nerve racking to take that first snip, hours and hours of knitting coming undone is the vision one has.
I folded the part I did not like and I crochet an edge and hand sewed along the top edge, zig zagging with a machine was just not an option because of the bulk. So hand sewing it is.
The reason is that I was just not comfortable with the little "chuchy" "V" in the front and it made the front much heavier than the back so as I was wearing it the front got longer and longer and the symmetry was just off. "Frogging" (ripping it apart and starting over) was just not an option. The yarn is delicate and it would not hold up well and besides I already sewed it up so well that it is almost impossible to undo the sewing. So I STEEKED!
Thank you Ellene Warren
Ellene just informed me that what I did was not called "steeking" what I did was "cut 'n sew".
Well there you have it, I'm not quite up to the Knittese terms.
8 comments:
Very brave of you, Ana! It turned out great though...nice work!
Hi Ana,
Little Miss Smartypants here. What you did was brave, brilliant and creative, but it is not called stteking! A steek is a technique where an extra row is knit into a garment purposely to be used as a cutting line, and is mostly used to insure that a complicated patter is continuous from one side of the steek to the other, as in a cardigan sweater or a drop shoulder where the armholes are steeked from a 'tube' of knitting.
What you did is called 'cut and sew' and is ofter done by machine knitters, who like to make a rectangle of fabric like for the front of the sweater, maybe even with a machine knit hem technique, and then the armholes and neck shaping are cut using the zig zag technique.
Here is what Lucy Neatby has to say about steeking:
"A steek is nothing more fearsome than a vertical column of extra knitted stitches designed to be cut open when a garment is being finished. It is similar to the seam allowance around the sewing lines on a pattern for a woven fabric.
A steek may run right from the lower edge of a garment (to later form the front opening for a vest or cardigan) or be built to bridge the openings for armholes and neck without having to break the rhythm of the circular knitting (particularly helpful in two-colors-per-round knitting). As a steek is a preplanned cutting area, fully fashioned shapings may be made on either side of the steek for smart and easy finishing and no loss of patterned fabric.
Steeks are less commonly used in single-color-per-round work, but can still be very useful to ensure a perfect match with a long color gradation yarn or complex stripes (and in this case also fewer ends to darn in), or to facilitate a certain technique. For example, Bavarian travelling sts are much more easily worked with the right side of the work facing. If making a cardigan or required armholes, a steek would allow the work to be maintained in the round."
The sweater came out beautiful!
Thank you Ellene!
Whether steeking or cut and sewing...it looks great!
Wow, brave lady! Way to go! It looks awesome!
Hey no matter if you have the lingo down or not you fixed your problem, and it turned out dang cute!
You are such a brave soul! Not sure I could have pulled that one off, but the result is beautiful. You are so clever!
well, whatever it's called what you did, it looks great! :)
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