Fair Isle Knitting -- "Steeking"

Steeking, as I said, lets you create armholes but still continue knitting in the round.

You should have marked the start of the rows; this will be where you joined the threads and it will also be the start of the pattern, plus it will be directly above the tail of the yarn where you made the slip knot before casting on, and where you joined the caston stitches before starting the bottom ribbing.

You should also be able to find the middle of the round; it will be half the stitches away from the start of the round.

At the last round BEFORE you cast on the steeking, put a piece of spare yarn in a darning needle and run the needle through the last 5 stitches of the row.

THEN cast on steeking stitches following the pattern described below.

THEN run the needle through the first five stitches in the next round and tie a bow in the yarn to hold those stitches. 

IF you don’t do this step the armhole is going to be too tight.

THEN cast on steeking stitches; this finishes the left underarm. 

Work around to the other underarm and once again: use a yarn holder for the start of the underarm; cast on steeking; run the yarn holder through the rest of the underarm stitches; cast on steeking, and continue around for 70 rows.

The pattern for casting on steeking follows:

1.   Background color

2.  Contrast color

3.  Background color

4.  Contrast color

5.  Background color

6.  Contrast color.

The rest of the steeking on either side goes in reverse order.  That is, the two middle rows of the steeking are both in contrast color for that row.

For the rest of the jumper top, you will work the steeking in the same colors as that row.  In my jumper, I made the castons at a row with all background color.  The next round had the yellow sparkles, so that was the contrast color in the steeking.  The third row was all background again.  The fourth row used the darkest green for contrast.  Row 5 had sage for contrast; row 6 had peridot; row 7 had brown.  And so on until the shoulders.

I am republishing this post because I found a way around the fact that the image tool on the toolbar doesn't work.  This is what the steeking on my sleeveless pullover looks like.

You work 70 rows of armholes in this jumper pattern, sticking with the motif on the body and using the contrast color from each row in the steeking for that row.

Next week I’ll tell you how to work off the shoulders.

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