Steeking may not only revolutionise the way you knit, but it also offers a great way to upcycle or reconstruct knitted garments, tailor them to your needs, and save them from landfill or eternal damnation in your darning pile.
What does ‘steek’ mean exactly? If you’re a knitter, you may have seen the word ‘steek’ used in patterns. The technique of steeking garments is not commonly practised in Australia. So it’s not surprising if Australian knitters feel a little bamboozled about its actual meaning.
Steeking is a very old tradition. It is believed to be the original way of putting knitted garments together; and it is still practised around the world, from Estonia to the Shetland Islands and many other places with a strong knitting culture.
What Is Steeking?
In modern knitting, steeking is the act of cutting a piece of knitting and then sewing it back together. Garments are knitted in the round – one tube for the body and two for the sleeves. Because there are no purl rows when you knit in the round, it is a fast and easy technique to create a garment. It also enables the knitter to create an