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February 06, 2006
On steeks~Quote Heavy
Wendy did a post on Steeks today. Now I normally do not read her blog but somebody directed me to it since I had recently posted on a list that Norgies do not have steeks and Wendy contradicts me. Huzzah! Since I am feeling particularly crabby due to lost messages let me reply to Wendy's post with my arguements against her definition of steeks....
I will start with Wendy's article first where she states "A steek is nothing more than extra stitches used where you are going to cut the garment -- for armholes and/or down the front for a cardigan." Yep she said it herself extra stitches however in her knitty article[to which she links] and in her descriptions of how to work a steek there are no extra stitches! How can she claim no extra sts are steeks when she she defines them as extra stitches? She is confusing cutting with steeks....
Elka's reply is that one can cut a garment anytime, and having kids I assure you things do get cut, and they do not have steeks. Maybe she is confusing machine stitching down where one wants to cut as a steek but the experts contradict her on that definition.
Lets start with Elizabeth Zimmermann who does not call anything a steek. But Elizabeth did write in her Knitting Workshop pg137: after armhole shaping put two stitches at center-front on a safety-pin, and CAST ON[those pesky extra stitches aka steek] 3 or 4 stitches instead..... Armholes have been shaped in a similar fashion with more stitches on a thread to start with....
What!?! EZ isn't enough of an authority for you? How about Meg Swansen in Sweaters From Camp pgs 22-24:.... a steek consists of a group of extra stitches cast on .... to enable knitters to work the entire sweater in the round. The extra stitches are not part of the measurement of the garment, but simply a field for future cutting....
Oh sure I can hear you now~'' they are related so of course they are perpetuating the same misinformation'
Let's turn to the Fair Isle experts. Alice Starmore defines steeks on pgs 87&88 of AS Book of Fair Isle Knitting as: a series of unknitted lengths of yarn or extra knitted stitches that allow the knitting to proceed in the round. pgs 100-102 describe several ways to work a steek which guess what? involves either casting on extra stitches or wrappping the yarn around the needle several times over to create a long float that will be cut. Since Dame Alice's book is oop you may refer to Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting pgs 61-63 where OK she doesn't call them steeks but instead can you believe it "EXTRA STITCHES" Yes the entire section on steeks is called "EXTRA STITCHES" with her capitalizing it. How handy.
Sure Wendy differentiates between her steeks and Fair Isle steeks but general knitters do not. June Hiatt in her Principles of Knitting states on pg 113 " ..... cast on a minimum of the same number of stitches and continue to work the garment up to the shoulders. These extra stitches are called the Steek" Since Hiatt is OOP look at pgs86-87 of Pricilla Gibson-Roberts Knitting in the Old Way under Plan 3: Steeked Jersey: " To steek loosely translates as to close, and that is what the steek does: it closes a gap so you can continue circular knitting..... bridge the gap by adding stitches...... cut the steek. Yes, cut the steek!" This is BTW over 3 paragraphs but you will note that she clearly differentiates between cutting and steeks since you are instucted to cut the steek which she defines as a bridge created by adding [extra] stitches.
But, but, but what of Norgies? One cuts them and they don't have extra stitches... Au contraire dear knitter. Some designers put a steek into Norgies. Really! Lise Kolstad and Tone Takle in their Sweater, More Sweater, and Kids Sweaters use steeks. Since I happen to have the More Sweaters book in front of me lets look at pg 134 under Methods: On the next round, cast on 3 new stitches over the cast-off stitches. Then purl all the new stitches, working them in a double strand[main plus contrast color]. This strengthens for cutting and machine stitching.
Notice that they added extra stitches aka a steek that will be stabalized via machine stitching and cut for opening. There was a nice article several years ago in Knitters introducing the crocheted steek to modern knitters. The author surmised that, in the past[I do not have the article in front of me sorry], when knitters did not want to switch from circular to back and forth knitting at armholes they CO a minimum of 3 extra stitches which they would stabalize with crochet[no sewing machines I guess] and cut. I realize Dale of Norway does not utilize steeks but I am can only surmise that prior to sewing machines being a common household item the self same patterns would have been written with a crocheted steek. Especially in light that Takle and Kolstad use 3 extra stitches and are Norwegian gals. Not having lived way back when I have make an educated guess based upon every knitting authority other than Wendy.
OK crabby patty needs to get back to her knitting so she has something to show you laters. This was so not what I intended my entry to be today *sigh*
OH I looked at a Dale pattern namely Jubileum which is a cardigan and it instructs one to" CO 4 new sts[these are cutting sts: work in MC on all rnds and exclude from st counts]" so I guess Dale does use steeks for cardigan fronts but choses not to for armholes. Probably because some knitters do not achieve both row and stitch gauge and that way one can be off but the armhole will not be too deap or too shallow. I stand so corrected on Dale's usage of steeks. And Wendy is now even more wrong to use the word 'steek' for 'cut' on Norgies
Posted by Elka at 03:02 PM | Comments (2)
peeved
One of the first things I do in the morning is check my blog for comments. Comments get automatically junked[even mine!] so I need to approve them and I try to reply to each and every one I receive. So this morning, a morning I woke up abnormally early, not only are there no new comments but there are less! MT decided to lose Saturday and Sunday's posts. I can't find them anywhere so here is a recap:
friday a knitting gathering at my joint to kick off the Olympic knitalong tho you don't need to be participating so email me at elka_knits AT hotmail DOT com for address and directions
urban knitter meeting was muy fun so wicked glad I went
swatch of OKAL sweater choice #1 pretty much done and tho I didn't get gauge I am going with what I got and yes I ripped my swatch[which was pictured]
MKAL picture consisted of totally frogged yarn~ oooooooh curly :^>
OK I will do a real blog entry tonight but keep in mind I am peeved and I did do my daily blogging.
Oh almost forgot~ a pattern I designed was put up on Cascade's free pattern page. A direct link[since they don't give credit under thumbnails] is here. I designed Maude months before Isabella and I hope you like it.
Posted by Elka at 07:53 AM | Comments (3)