the blue blog archives: stuck at the steek

I picked up my Dale bug sweater and realized that I hadn't posted a picture of the progress I'd made before my in-laws arrived. Well let me do that right now:

I'm pretty excited about having gotten so far. The bugs are kinda lumpy, but I just keep telling myself that pressing it will make everything look perfect (or at least good enough for my first fair-isle).

I'm just one row of vw's away from starting the neck steek. I don't want to cast off stitches in the middle for the neck and then have to do the two-handed, two-color thing back and forth, so I've decided to do some sort of steek here. But I'm not 100% sure what sort of steek I should make (it's supposed to be a v-neck, by the way). I was thinking I'd just cast off the center stitch and then cast on new stitches above to make a little kangaroo pouch thing, like Elizabeth Zimmerman and Alice Starmore suggest, and like Wendy did with Luskentyre and Rosendal. But I've also seen people just knit a shapeless tube, use the machine sewing line to "create" the neck shape and then cut out the extra knitted fabric (described here). I think this is the way the Philosopher's Wool people do it. And the woman who taught the steek class I took had done this Dale sweater that way.

What to do? All the decisions in this steeking deal seem so frighteningly final!

posted by alison at 12:03 am | in bugs! , techniques

Comments

i think you're brave to even think about cutting somethign that you've knitted, call me a wimp but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do it. The idea of machine sewing a neck line and then cutting away the excess sounds like a good plan - I think this would work well...

Posted by: kerrie at January 17, 2003 4:41 AM

That's how I did my one and only steek, Alison. Sew and then cut away extra fabric.

Posted by: Laura at January 17, 2003 8:26 AM

I've done a neck steek like Wendy shows. I think if the pattern has neck shaping in it, this is a good option. If the pattern ignores the neck shaping (like Philosopher's Wool does) then you have to do the sew and cut thing or improvise neck shaping and add a steek.

Posted by: michelle at January 17, 2003 11:52 AM

I think the advantage of doing the sew and cut method is that you don't have to figure out where you are in the pattern. The downside seems to be getting the neck shaping after you're done. I think I would opt for the kangaroo pocket myself, although I've never actually done any steeking. Not because I'm afraid but because the sewing machine is too hard to get to.

Posted by: Larry at January 17, 2003 12:19 PM

I vote for kanga pocket. Does the pattern include neck shaping?

Posted by: Melissa at January 17, 2003 2:31 PM

Thanks everyone for your input! Michelle's explanation makes a lot of sense to me. This pattern does have neck shaping (decreases at center for v-neck), so I think I will do the kangaroo pouch. I'll see if I can get to it tonight, so stay tuned!

Posted by: alison at January 17, 2003 3:37 PM

Hey, Alison,

It's you!! Great plog pages you've got and now I see where all those photos you've taken ended up!!

See you soon.

May

Posted by: May at January 17, 2003 6:37 PM

Looking good, Alison!

Posted by: Becky at January 18, 2003 3:26 AM

Good to hear you trying a kangaroo pouch - I've only done the "stitch the neck outline" once with the machine - making that curved line on knitted fabric with a presser foot - it gets kinda futzy, and I'm not sure I could do it again. The last neck steek I did was a kangaroo pouch - worked out perfectly.

Posted by: Patricia at January 18, 2003 2:07 PM