Steeks: The Crocheted Reinforcement

 

A steek is a bridge a ‘bridge’ of stitches over what will later become an opening for an armhole, cardigan front or neck. The purpose of a steek is to enable knitting in the round, thus staying on the right side, rather than having to knit back and forth with purl stitches on the wrong side. This is particularly useful when doing colour work or complex designs. The steeks are later cut up the centre, leaving a seam.

Don’t be daunted by the cutting. Everyone will tell you that it’s easy and that you’ll never look back, because it’s true. You will never look back, having tried it once.

Whilst knitted cloth unravels across the rows, rather than down the columns, slippery yarns will still fray and need to be dealt with before cutting.

Note: with sticky Shetland or Scandinavian type wools, you can felt the steeks or simply make a running stitch either side of the centre column before cutting, or do nothing at all until the garment is complete.

Search in the labels 'Glossary', 'Tutorials' or 'Knitting' or go HERE to see the post on Steeking With Sticky Wool. 

The crocheted method is to make a chain along both sides of the central stitch. It's drawback is that you make a slightly bulkier seam, which can be averted somewhat by using a finer yarn than in the garment.

I have added 7 steek sts.

The reinforcement line is made through one leg of the centre stitch (column 4) and one leg of the stitch beside it (column 3 or 5). That is, you crochet together half of the centre stitch and half of the adjacent stitch, with the hook pointing into the centre as shown in the diagram above.

To secure the beginning, make a slip knot, then pop it on the hook. Put the hook through at position (5), then wrap the yarn around so you encompass the cast on edge. Hook it through the slip knot, making the first chain stitch. Now, following the arrows, slip the hook through one leg of column (5) and 1 leg of the central stitch (4), wrap the yarn around and pull it through. Continue up the column, with the hook pointing towards the centre as you see on the diagram.

When you reach the top, catch the cast-off edge.

Cut the yarn with enough tail to sew in and pull through the remaining loop to secure. Turn and repeat down the other side.

The centre steek stitch now has been reinforced, with half of it in each row of crochet. When you pull these rows apart a little, you will see a ladder between them. With care not to snip the reinforcement, cut through this ladder.

Trim or tidy excess after blocking. Once the sleeves are finished, you can stitch the seam in place, being careful to allow room for movement and not stitch through to the right side. For this, a light whip stitch will suffice.

Note: You could work the crochet lines one column across on each side, to give a narrower seam. Pick up one leg of column 6 & 5 or 2 & 3 instead, leaving column 4 free. You will still cut up the middle of column 4, then trim what will be a little more debris, after blocking.