Steeking Demonstration

Brenda H.
demonstrating steking
Fiber Fest
Riverton, WY
September 2016

Saturday was a day filled with demonstrations, fiber, and friends. I had a lot of fun, and I learned something, too. One demonstration that I enjoyed was steeking in the round.  Brenda had prepared a stack of samples for the attendees to try their hand at the technique. Thanks, Brenda for knitting all those samples.

Brenda shows how she knits sweaters in the round
and later steeks to add a button band or zipper. 

Brenda presented this demonstration at a previous Guild meeting, but I had another task after the meeting and missed it. I was thrilled to hear she was doing it again at the Fiber Fest.

Brenda explained there are at least three ways to steek: using a sewing machine, crocheting over a row of stitches or hand sewing (backstitching on the stitches). We tried the crochet and hand-stitching  during her presentation. Note the two by two rib on the samples. We stitched on the outside stitch on the ribs, but normally a steek area would be purposefully knit in the garment. When the scissors came out, everyone held their breath, but both methods held. The steeked area can then be turned under for a zipper to be attached. Stitches could also be picked up for a button band to be added.

This technique can only be used on "sticky" fibers, like wool, not cotton or acrylic.

I learned that steeking is not difficult or scary as I had thought. Thanks Brenda!

Here's a video of the process from VeryPink.

Have you tried steeking?