Hello! I hope this finds you all well. Today, I’m diving deep into a knitting technique – one way of finishing a steek, with button bands with knitted-on facings. Perhaps you’re already familiar with steeking. If not, let me explain.
I have been knitting a long Norwegian cardigan top-down and in the round, with a stranded colourwork yoke. At first it looks like a long sweater or mini-dress. To become a cardigan, it must be cut open. And to that end, a ‘panel’ of several extra stitches (in this case five) is knit in the centre front. Together these stitches form the steek. In the yoke the steek is clearly visible (between arrows), in the body it is just five stitches like all the rest.
I marked the centre of the steek with basting stitch in red yarn.
With my sewing machine, I zigzagged through the stitches on either side of the centre stitch, to prevent them from unravelling.
This is what it looks like after zigzagging.
The five stitches between the red arrows form the steek: the centre stitch with the red basting stiches down the middle, one stitch with zigzags on either side, and one more stitch on either side of that.
Then I took a deep breath and cut!
The zigzags keep the knitting from falling apart.
Now the button bands are knit. A little shorter than the fronts – they will be stretched out when they are sewn on.
The steek stitches are folded to the inside when the button band is sewn on. For a tidy look, they need to be covered somehow. In this case they will be covered by a facing. The facing is knit on to the button band – four stitches in stocking stitch next to the ribbing (arrow below):
I pinned the button bands in place and sewed them on to the fronts with mattress stitch from the right side of the fabric, just like you would seam separate pieces of a sweater together.
After that, the facings need to be fastened to the fronts on the wrong side of the fabric with invisible stitches to cover the cut stitches of the steek. This takes time and patience. I did it in instalments. All in all, sewing on the button bands and sewing the facings in place took me at least two hours. And I have to say, it looks very neat! Can you see it? The button band to the right, with the 4-stitch facing to the left of it:
Hardest parts of the steeking:
- Plucking up the courage to do it.
- Not accidentally zigzagging the back of the cardigan to the front.
What I would do differently next time:
- Weave in the ends before zigzagging the steek (loose yarn ends got caught between the zigzags).
- Use a wider zigzag.
Finally, I knit on the lower ribbing. Now all the cardigan needs is a nice bubble bath and buttons. I hope I’ve shown and described the entire process clearly enough and given you the courage to maybe try steeking this way someday.
I’m off to the Handwerkbeurs now – THE knitting/crochet/embroidery/quilting event of the year around here. If I don’t forget to take photographs I’ll tell you about it next week. Hope to see you then. Bye!