Steeking strikes fear in the most advanced knitters! Cut my work? Are you crazy? It really isn’t as scary as you think IF you prepare and reinforce your work before cutting. It’s best to steek non-superwashed fibers, but you can successfully steek superwashed wool if you use a machine or hand-sewed reinforcement.
Why steek? So you can knit stranded colorwork in the round. Meaning, no purling!
Here is my steeked sweater and a video of me steeking said sweater, (sorry if the video is a little blurry) that I started in October 2019 – and finished all but one arm, which I then finished the other day.
It is superwash merino, so I hand-sewed the reinforcements as well as crochet reinforced. I then applied some grosgrain ribbon and used stitch-witch to tack down the reinforcements. I then stitched around the ribbon to provide another level of security. Pro-tip . . . when adding buttons to knitting, put a button in the back as well, so the buttoning-unbuttoning does not pull on the knitted fabric.
Yarn – Squish Worsted in colors Raspberry and Valyrian Steel
Buttons – Art Deco button and little heart in red
Pattern – Dissent by Andrea Rangel. This is a great, well written, easy to understand pattern.
The Yarn Shop at Alma Park 