Steek Practice:

Knitting a steek is a great way to make Fair Isle or stranded knitting a lot easier. Working in the round -- even when your project ultimately will be flat or needs to have holes cut into it, as with a cardigan front and sleeves -- makes stranded knitting a lot faster and easier.

To work a steek in Fair Isle knitting, you add a few extra stitches to the project as you knit. When finished, you sew along those stitches by hand or machine, then cut the work open, fold the edges over and seam.


The process is a little nerve-wracking, so it's a great idea to practice on a swatch like this one before you try it on a more complicate project.

Materials:

• About 6 yards total of 3 different colors of medium weight 100 percent wool yarn (I used three colors of Cascade 220 The Heathers, about a yard of the green, 2 yards of blue and 3 yards of gold)
• set of 4 size 7 US (4.5 mm) double-pointed knitting needles
• a copy of the Steek Sample Knitting Chart
• scissors, yarn needle, sewing thread and needle or sewing machine

Gauge:

5.5 stitches and 6 rows per inch in pattern. Gauge is not critical.

Size:

Finished piece is 4.5 inches tall and almost 6.5 inches long after finishing the steek. Size is not critical; this is practice!

Instructions:

1. Cast on 41 stitches using the first background color of your choice (in the sample, green).
2. Follow the Steek Sample Chart working from bottom to top in the round, changing colors as indicated. Remember that the first two and last two stitches of each round are the steek, so they don't correspond to the rest of the pattern. Just alternate colors on these as you go through the project.

1. Bind off in your original color. Don't worry about weaving in ends.
2. Using your sewing machine or a needle and thread, sew two rows of small stitches on each side of the steek so that the place where you'll be cutting (the beginning of the round) is in between these stitches.
3. Carefully cut between the stitches, trying not to actually cut the yarn of the stitches.
4. Use yarn and a yarn needle to sew down the edge stitches to the back of the work. If you catch the yarn tails under the hem, you don't have to weave in ends.