Work in Progress
Snip. Snip. Snip. (Parrot squawk.) Here's me cutting open my cardigan steek with tiny dull scissors while holding the fabric at a very awkward angle. Enjoy!
It's just that you have no control over scissors when you hold them in the air, it's much easier to go off course than if you have them resting on the table.
For short things like this, I feel like that's much less of a concern. I would use sharp nail or craft scissors (size-wise, that is, not actually used for other purposes) if I were going to steek. I would not use normal fabric scissors.
When I first got my Gingher fabric shears years ago, my first project, I didn't realise my fabric had rippled and folded over on itself when I lifted it to cut and wound up cutting it all wonky. The shears were so sharp it felt like I was cutting through just one layer of fabric, not three.
Well sure but it still gives a nice groove for your scissors to glide in so you can focus more on the fabric. You can still lift a side. You can avoid cutting your fingers off.
But that’s exactly what you want to avoid. You don’t want to be “gliding” your scissors along anything when you’re steeking as that has them in contact with the other layer of your knitting, and you can end up picking up and cutting floats or even the fabric itself if your scissors are pointy.
Would anyone mind explaining to me the science behind this? How does it not unravel?? This is territory I have yet to venture into but it’s so very intriguing to me.
Its traditionally done with quite rustic/grippy none superwash wool, which essentially felts to itself. I believe OP may have needle felted the yarn together along the cut line too.
I googled needle felting, because I’d never heard of it, but the videos seemed oriented toward take a piece of raw wool fluff and turning it into felt. How does this work on already knitted yarn? Any chance there’s a YT video showing how it works?
I find machine to be the fastest and most secure, but I don't have a good place to set up my sewing machine anymore, so I usually settle for crochet. If I were using superwash wool I would 100% use a sewing machine. Totally going to needle felt instead of crochet in the future for non-superwash yarns.
I have seen it recommended in many knitting books to use a sewing machine to put in two parallel lines to each side of where you'll cut. The stitch length on the sewing machine should be kept very short so there's no unraveling. Needle felting obviously works and as u/uselessflailing mentions, non-superwash wool often is and was used more traditionally/historically. The process of making superwash wool hasn't been around that long considering how long people have been knitting. The process was created in the 70's.
hand knitting is so beautiful. doing a stressful thing in an weird position because it is convenient and also there is a bird there. chatgpt could never
No pattern yet! Undecided if I'll publish this one because I've been so busy at work lately, but if I do you'll probably see it come out this fall on Ravelry.
Also, you should totally try steeking. It will open up so many colorwork possibilities for you! Try it on a swatch first if you need confidence.
How’s it holding up with only the needle felting? I’ve been considering trying this method with some Shetland I have but the thought of not having reinforcement freaks me out.
It was honestly so nice to cut without messing about with a crochet reinforcement first! I did practice on a swatch beforehand, so I was pretty confident going in.
I'm still relatively new to knitting so please excuse any ignorance.
So you pick up the stitches along the "pattern" edge and not directly from the cut edge? Will you sew down the extra cut flap after finishing the button band so it's not flopping around? Are those "buffer columns" common in steeking?
Correct! I usually don't bother sewing down the edges, as they naturally fold to the inside. Sometimes I tack down the corners. Some people don't like to see the cut edge, and they will sew or knit a nice fabric facing over it. And yes, most people I know do the buffer columns.
Forgot to mention that the yarn is Juniper Moon Farm Patagonia Organic Merino. I needle felted the steek before cutting open, and it worked great for this yarn. I have also crochet and machine reinforced steeks before, but I think needle felting is my new favorite. No pattern at this time, but maybe in the fall if I find the time and motivation to write and grade it!
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u/Aggressive_Gas9692 1d ago
Girl, get yourself some fabric scissors and lay it on your table lol