The Mystique - and Mistakes - of Steeking.

I have discovered that I am a knitter who loves colourwork more than lace or cables. I guess it's just the way my brain works. I can keep track - and stay motivated - by colours changing, more than I can in a complex cable or lace pattern.

So, I was immediately smitten with the Voyage Cardigan and saw it as a great way to use up a lot of my buckets of sock yarn. Plus plain sleeves, which would go quickly.

Just one (or three) little catches in this pattern. It involves "steeking".  

For those of you who don't know what steeking is, it is a way of being able to "knit colourwork in the round" and avoid having to purl. A number of stitches are added to the create the "steek", which is reinforced area that connects what will become the two fronts of a cardigan. The steek is the connecting element that lets you cut into your knit material. That's correct "CUT".  

This pattern also had "steeks" in the sleeves, so you knit in the round (again incorporating steek stitches) and then cut open the sleeve steek to pick up the sleeve stitches. 

I cannot believe that I have been knitting for 60 years and never experienced a "steek" before. They are the norm in many European countries and people swear by them. I think the whole idea of cutting a sweater was too scary for me, so I just avoided any mention of them. But this pattern was so fabulous that I decided to go for it. And there are a TON of videos and guides to help you gain courage. 

The colour work, as expected, was hypnotic. I used the pattern image as a guide for picking colours that I had in my stash that were close. And it went sooooo quickly. I just couldn't put it down - I needed to see what the next pattern would look like. Every area only involved two colours, and, a bonus of the "steeking" is that the new ends get cut off, so no ends to darn in.

Above is a picture of the fully knit body - with the shoulder seams joined - and you can see some running stitches up the front that show where the "steek" stitches are. I watched many, many videos on reinforcing before cutting. And was ready to jump in. The sleeves are also not yet cut, so more of a cocoon than a sweater. 

There are two tried-and-true favourite methods to reinforce a steek. One is to use your sewing machine. The other is to crochet a reinforcing chain stitch right next to where you need to cut. I have no idea why I was leary of trying the sewing machine method, but I was, so opted for the crochet chain method. Here are a couple of pics

This shot shows the crochet reinforcement on either side of the steek stitches.

This shot shows the front steek actually cut. You can see the running stitch guide for the edge of the steek.

This shows the sleeve steek cut - you can see the reinforcement crochet line.

Unfortunately, when I went to pick up the sleeve stitches, the crochet did NOT hold the stitches and I started to lose the edge. Yikes. I quickly ran to the sewing machine and did what I should have done from the start. It was fast, easy, and most important of all STURDY!!

Here is what the sleeve looked like once I picked up the stitches. I will be putting ribbon over the bulk in here, as well as on the fronts. 

And here is the sleeve in progress. I may have to do some duplicate stitch over the first row.  I may also try blocking again and see if that helps, after darning in the ends at the beginning. 

So, one and a half sleeves to go - the remaining sleeve is the "messier one". And the button band to pick up and knit.  Still a lot of work left.  And the fun really was the colour work, which I still love.

What were the mistakes? Not using the sewing machine at first to reinforce. It would have worked much better and would have saved me considerable time. And, there is also a boo boo in the colour work, which somehow I didn't notice until it was all done. Now I am leaving it in as a "creative" touch - like I did it on purpose. lol. I don't think anyone will notice except me. 

Hoping I can finish in the next week, but I do have a pair of socks that have a deadline, so you never know.