The etymology of the “steek”
The word ‘steek’ has its root in the general Middle English verb ‘steken’ meaning to shut or fasten. By the Eighteenth Century, ‘steek’ was a term common to Shetland, Scots and Northern English dialects and, while it might be used in reference to a closed gate, door, or mouth, it was most often associated with needlework or knitting. In Scots, the verb, ‘to steek’ meant to sew, darn, or knit: “Wull ee steek this slittin oxter afore it geets ony woare?” Will you stitch this fraying underarm before it gets any worse?
Or, when used as a noun, the word ‘steek’ simply meant ‘stitch’. “For want of a steek a shoe may be tint” For want of a stitch, a shoe may be lost
While in some parts of Scotland and Shetland the word “steeking” still primarily means to stitch or close, in contemporary knitting parlance, the word has mutated and morphed to signify the opposite: that is, for most knitters, steeking now means to cut open, rather than to fasten shut. Thus, in pattern books that have been produced over the past thirty years or so, one finds the word “steek” being used in reference to what, in sewing, is commonly called a seam allowance (a few stitches that are worked additionally to the main pattern). Put simply, then, for today’s knitters, a “steek” is a bridge of extra stitches, connecting two separate pieces of knitted fabric, enabling them to be worked swiftly in the round. Preparing, reinforcing, and then cutting open this seam allowance (the practice now commonly known as “steeking”) transforms the tube back into flat pieces.
Why use steeks?
Steeks can be inserted into any kind of knitted fabric, but their most common application is perhaps in knitting a cardigan using the Fair Isle method of stranded colourwork. This is because carrying and purling two shades of yarn can prove tricky: many knitters find that the purl stitches create significant differences in their tension, or are much slower and more cumbersome to work. But if a steek is cast on in the places where the knitting would have to be divided to be worked back and forth — namely, at the cardigan’s centre front opening, and sleeves — the knitter can work the entire garment in the round, without purling, all the way from hem to shoulders. When the steeks are cut open, the extra cast-on stitches act just like seam allowances around which the knitter can pick up stitches to create button bands and sleeves.
But don’t steeks unravel?
Knitted fabric certainly likes to unravel, but it does so horizontally. Steek stitches are cut on the vertical, making them far less likely to do so. As anyone who has pulled back their knitting will know, wool is also a very ‘sticky’ fibre which likes to retain its shape. If one is knitting with a pure- wool or majority-wool yarn then it is very easy to work a steek simply because the stitches ‘want’ to hold their shape rather than to unravel. That said, because the cut edges of the steek are generally used to pick up a sleeve or edging afterwards, it is useful to reinforce them before cutting to help them deal with any strain they might take afterwards. Steeks can be prepared, reinforced and finished in a wide variety of ways. Taking a look at the interiors of a range of historic and contemporary cardigans that have been knitted in the round, before being “steeked” open, illustrates just how different steeks can be.
Steeks: an inside view
Figure 04 on the previous page, shows the front button bands of a 1920s cardigan knit in several natural shades of Shetland wool. The band has been worked in corrugated rib; buttonholes have been cut vertically into the band; and machine stitching has been used to attach a reinforcing grosgrain ribbon to the inside. Figure 05 on the previous page, shows the grosgrain button-band reinforcement from the inside, and, to its left, the raw edges of a steek, which has been cut open, and folded back to the inside of the garment, away from the bands. The steek has not been reinforced, or stitched down: because the natural Shetland wool is very ‘sticky’ and has a tendency to felt, the knitter has trusted to the natural action of wear, and, over time, the steek edges have slightly felted together and adhered to the inside of the cardigan. Leaving steek edges ‘raw’ and allowing for felting in
this way is a common feature of many Shetland hand-knitted garments, such as the yoked cardigans that are still produced and sold today.
Figure 06 on the previous page shows the front button band of a cardigan that has been knitted in an Argyle pattern, and figure 07 on the left shows the interior of the same button band. A steek has been cut to create the cardigan front opening, and the raw edges have been trimmed back, bound over, and secured to the inside with blue blanket stitch. Figures 08 and 09, which also show the front and interior of a button band, illustrate a different and rather more laborious method of securing raw steek edges to the inside of a cardigan. Rather than casting on extra stitches for a steek bridge and knitting across them, the knitter has wound both strands of working yarn round her needle several times. Each time these wound strands are encountered, they are dropped off the needle, creating a giant ladder of strands across the cardigan front. When the knitting is complete, the knitter cuts this ladder in two, creating a series of ends, which are then individually woven in to the back of the work (figure 8). A button band has then been picked up from the edge of the wound steek, and worked in moss stitch. The careful finishing of the ‘wound steek’ has made the edges of this 1930s garment extremely neat and durable.
Figures 10 through 13 show recently-knitted colourwork cardigans that use similar techniques of steeking and reinforcing as those used in the earlier garments. For the cardigan in figures 10 and 11, a crocheted steek has been worked, a button band has been picked up along the steek edge, and a ribbon reinforcement has then been hand-sewn to the inside. Rather than leaving the steek edges raw, the crochet reinforcement has been carefully removed, and the steek edges lightly hand-stitched down to the inside. In figures 12 and 13, a ‘sandwich’ edging has been worked to cover and enclose a crocheted steek, securing the cut edges, and rendering them completely invisible.
Steeks: beyond the cardigan
As we can see from these examples, there are a wide variety of ways to cut and finish a steek. And, because shaping can easily be worked around a seam allowance, steeking is a technique that can be used to knit just about any garment or object. Steeks easily lend themselves to the creation of tea- cosies and blankets, dog jackets and tank tops. Once you are able to cut up knitted fabric without fear, you really can make just about anything. Inventive knitwear designer, Stephen West, discovered just that in his radical transformations of some favourite thrift-shop finds. Discovering a traditional Setesdal sweater in an Amsterdam vintage store, Stephen had an idea. “The wide drop shoulder construction lent itself perfectly to legs,” he says:
“so I transformed the sweater into a pair of tailored pants. I spent the day executing my first crocheted steeks, and re-seaming the fabric using three needle bind-offs and kitchener stitch. I used the arms and shoulders of the sweater for the pant legs, and part of the sweater body for the waist. I appliqued a section from the stranded fabric for a cod piece, which is lined with super-soft merino wool.”
Figure 14 shows how Stephen transformed the sweater into pants. The steeked Setesdal pants were just the beginning. Once Stephen started steeking, he found he couldn’t stop:
“I’ve now made several other pairs of repurposed sweater pants and they keep me toasty-warm as I roam the streets of Amersterdam. I’ve had dozens of onlookers stop in their tracks staring, laughing, or congratulating me, and offering to buy them.”
Stephen thinks that knowing how to work a steek has given him the freedom to transform any piece of knitted fabric into a different shape. “I hope to inspires more knitters to relax and have fun with their knitting.” He says, “the possibilities are endless.”
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Frank Meadow Sutcliffe Gallery
www.sutcliffe-gallery.co.uk and the Shetland Museum and Archives
www.shetland-museum.org.uk for their permission to reproduce images from their collections.
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