Steeks! BETA, part 2: the basic method for a faced steek

Overview

The first post of this series laid out background considerations about 3 things: what steeks are, what a facing is, and what yarn is best to use.
Later posts will show further variations--steeking sleeve openings and color knitting, how to add buttonholes and zippers, etc.

But for today, this (LONG!!) post shows the basic method.  It is step-by step tutorial for a faced steek. There is no sewing machine or hand-sewing involved.  Instead the garment edges are stabilized with a crocheted slip-stitch, then cut, then covered with a previously-prepared knitted facing.

The basic version of this steek--the version shown today--is the sort of steek you might put into a striped or one-color sweater.  If you choose to try this method on a garment, proceed with the warning that this is a new trick, not yet fully garment-tested.

 Intro

Everything about this trick--from the order of operations to the final result--is driven by this truth: once a piece of knitted fabric is cut, the cut-edge is liable to disintegrate. Although long-fiber and "rustic-type" wools can take a certain amount of handling after cutting, the more common soft and lofty "Germantown-type" wools are more delicate.  And with any kind of yarn, over-handling or pulling can turn that cut-edge into a truly terrifying mess of loose ends.

Preventing any chance of a mess means minimizing the amount of time during which the cut-edge is exposed. Therefore, a lot of this method involves steps to set the stage BEFORE doing the cut, followed by steps to quickly seal the cut-edge under the facing AFTERWARD.

Once you've run through the entire  process, it'll be obvious how the operations fit together. Yet, the preparation steps might be mysterious: confusing on first try. To tame confusion, this post features a lot of color-coding, schematics, diagrams and photos--as stated above, this is a LONG post! So, if you' are willing, here we go with a step-by-step tutorial for creating a faced steek on a swatch.

 Materials

• Main color (mc): a half-ounce of a soft and lofty multiple-ply wool yarn in worsted weight--the kind of yarn usually knit at 5st/inch.  Some common brand names of this type of yarn are: Ella Rae Classic, Cascade 220, Pattons Classic Wool.* The sample swatch is knit in an mc of Cascade 220 in green.........
• Contrast color (cc): a quarter ounce of a lighter weight yarn in a contrasting color for the facing. The sample cc is a sport-weight lavender ........ wool of unknown origin.
• knitting needles correctly sized for the mc yarn
• another set of knitting needles three sizes smaller than the one used for the mc, as well as a small crochet hook
• bright-colored waste yarn, a few yards, in a color unlike mc or cc. The sample uses a single strand of blue ........ needlepoint wool.
• scissors

Order of the work 

• Using mc and larger needles, knit the fabric swatch, color coded in this post in green ........
• Using crochet hook and smaller knitting needles, locate the purl columns (also color-coded green ........)  which act as an anchor for the facing.  Use that column to pick up the stitches for one long edge of the facing ........ then knit the facing, but do not bind off.  Repeat for the second facing.
• Using the crochet hook and the waste yarn ........ we'll fold and stabilize the garment edge.  Once the garment edge has been created by the folding, it is shown in bright green ........ 
• Cut the steek--the scissors!  In the illustrations the cut is signified in red ........
• With the crochet hook, immediately attach the unbound long edge of the facing ........ to the garment edge ......... This step--the grand finale--is a nifty three-in one trick which  binds off the facing ........ PLUS permanently stabilizes the garment edge ........  PLUS hides way forever, the cut edge. Note that the two columns either side of the cut are called the "cut-edges" and are symbolized in light gray .........

One last thing before we start:  If you click any chart, schematic, diagram or photo, it will become a lot bigger.

Knit a swatch

Rather than make you take the time to knit a tube, this tutorial shows the steek on an ordinary square of flat-knit fabric.  Once steeked, this swatch winds up in two separate pieces.   I think you can imagine that steeking a tube by the same method would leave the slit tube opened flat into a single rectangle featuring two faced edges.

We'll set up the square swatch like this:
Using the green mc, cast on 22 sts.
Row 1: k5, p1, k10, p1, k 5, turn work.
Row 2: p5, k1, p10, k1, p5, (Row 2 is actually just another way of saying "purl the purls and knit the knits.")

Below is a chart for those who prefer one. (If the color coding and column numbering on the chart is distracting, just ignore it: we'll come back to them later.)  Below the chart is a schematic of the fabric, showing the concept of the swatch.

As seen from the smooth side of the stockinette fabric, columns 6 and 17 are purl columns.  From the reverse side, these are knit columns, per photos below.

Below are photos which translate the concept into the real world--photos of an actual sample swatch "in the wool," showing front (left photo) and back (right photo).  This swatch is around 30 rows high.  The green arrows point to the purl columns.  As you see, although purl columns are practically invisible from the front, they're quite prominent on the back, where they appear as knit columns on a reverse stockinette (purl fabric) background.

Knit the facings

The next step is to knit the two facings. Here is an entire post about how to pick up fabric for a facing through a purl column.  I'll wait here while you read that.

Back again?  Good!

The below photo shows the direction of picking up the stitches for the facing ........ through one of the purl columns ........ (either column 6 or column 17). Note that the swatch has been turned sideways, so that the outer edge of the swatch (either column 1 or 22) is at the top of the photo.  Stated otherwise, the stitches for the facing are picked up so that the live loops point towards the center, where the cut will soon be made.  The facing is worked on these loops.

The method of the work is to draw a lavender-colored loop through the purl column with a crochet hook, then immediately transfer it to the waiting smaller knitting needle.  In the below photo,  the crochet hook is in the act of grabbing the running yarn to draw a new loop though the purl column, while the previously-drawn through loops are parked on the smaller knitting needle stationed under the purl column.

Once you have the anchor loops for the facing drawn through along the entire length of the purl column, work 4 rows of stockinette, then transfer the live loops to a holder.  ("Work 4 rows" means four rows of knitting above pick-up loops, with the fourth row remaining on the stitch holder to await further action later.)  Repeat the entire pick-up-and-knit procedure on the second purl column.

The below schematic conceptualizes what the fabric looks like once both facings have been picked up and knit.

 Note how the facings are picked up through the purl columns.

The below photo translates the conceptualization to reality. In this photo, you can see the smooth stockinette side of each facing against the bumpy reverse stockinette of the swatch.

Back view of swatch, both facings finished and pointing towards the center

Again, in the schematic, as well as the photo of the sample, the facings point towards the center, and are not bound off.

Fold the garment edge and stabilize with waste yarn

By the bright green color-coding ........, the stitch chart at the beginning of this post shows columns 9 and 14 are going to become the garment edges once the steek is completed. Before we go further, let's figure out why these particular columns will be the garment edges. For simplicity, we'll only look at the right side of the eventual cut, but, of course, the identical situation applies on the left.

If you look at the chart, the cut ....... is made in the trough between columns 11 and 12. Counting center-wards from purl column 6  ........  you can see that after the cut, 5 columns of fabric will remain: columns 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.  Column 9 will therefore be the center column of the remaining fabric between the cut and the purl column.

Once the cut is made, it will run alongside column 11.  We will therefore call columns 11 and 10 the "cut-edge."  ........   Due to a happy accident of knitting (called "stockinette curl") this two-column-wide cut-edge is going to flip right under columns 8 and 7.   Stated otherwise, columns 8 and 7 are going to become the outer fabric, column 9 is going to become the edge of the garment, and the cut-edge columns 11 and 10 are going to become the stuffing in the sandwich, trapped between the outer fabric and the facing .........  

By isolating the garment edge (column 9) two whole columns away from the cut-edge,** and by covering up the isolated cut-edge with the facing, that cut-edge is never going to come under tension (that's the theory, anyhow!)

There is another factor, too, which works to isolate the cut-edge.  You see, Col. 9 runs along the top of a vertical fold.  That fold is going to be permanently locked shut via a line of crocheted slip stitch. Result?  Even if the cut edge could somehow come undone while sandwiched between the facing and the outer fabric, the resulting loose end of yarn would have to somehow wiggle through a locked-shut 180 degree fold.

The fold is the heart of the trick, and here's how it's done.  If you fold your swatch vertically, with column 9 (or 14) as a single column of knitting along the edge, it will resemble the bright green ........ single column in the diagram below.

Once you've got the fabric folded at the correct column, you want to slip stitch this fold into place, using the waste yarn, as shown in blue, below.

(For more information about how to slip stitch, go to this post, which shows how.  Although that post is about slip stitching along a garter-stitch edge, the actual slip-stitching is the identical process to that here.)

Here is a photo, showing the slip-stitch process in the real world.

the column of stitches along the folded edge has been colorized bright green in this photo

This slip stitching is temporary, and will be replaced in the grand finale--the last step, right after the cut.

The below schematic  conceptualizes what the fabric will look like once both folds are locked down with waste yarn ......... Note the edge column of the bright green fold ......... Note also that the loop of fabric caught under/between the two lines of slip stitch is now colored light gray ........ showing that this will become the cut-edges of the fabric.

The below photo translates the conceptualization, showing what the actual swatch will look like at the end of this step. The bright green arrow points to the the folded edge ........ which has been colorized to be a brighter green than the surrounding columns. The blue arrow points to the line along which the waste yarn has been slip stitched ......... The fabric to become the cut-edges is visible through the slit, colorized gray.

top view of swatch showing both waste yarn folds 

Cut

The stage has been set: the facings are knit, live loops a-waiting.  The edge has been temporarily stabilized with waste yarn.  It's time for the cut .......  (the "eek" part of the steeking process).

As stated above, stockinette fabric wants to curl under. Our job in cutting is to preserve the stockinette structure as much as possible, so that the cut edge will curl the heck out of the way, to stay forever trapped in the facing-sandwich.

Therefore, the cut is made right up the trough between columns 11 and 12.  In other words, don't cut through the stitches in the columns, but rather, carefully separate the columns of stitches by putting the cut right up the middle.

Here's the schematic of the cut being made

Here's the photo:  you can see the curl is so strong that it actually follows the scissors: the instant you cut, the cut-edge wants to curl under.  On this photo, as well as the schematic above, the folded edge is colorized bright green and the cut-edge fabric colorized gray.

The natural curl of the cut-edge is reinforced by the waste-yarn fold.  That fold pins the curl tightly against the underside of columns 8 and 9.  In fact, this is one of the reasons the waste yarn is inserted in the first place--to control the location and tightness of the curl exhibited by the cut-edge.

Here's one more look at the cut edge curling under--a schematic side-view showing the sandwich surrounding the curled-under cut-edge.  The cut-edge is the stuffing, the facing is the bottom layer and the upper fabric (columns 8-9/15-16 on the chart) is the top layer.

The 3-in-1 trick:

trap the cut edge/bind off the facing/permanently stabilize the garment edge

We're now at the grand finale stage.  If you think about it, everything is done, except for sealing up the remaining long edge of the facing, thus forever trapping the cut edge inside the sandwich. This final seal is created using a crochet hook and a running yarn, creating a line of slip stitch right through the edge column, almost exactly the same way we did previously with the waste yarn.  This time, however, we're not only going to stabilize the folded garment-edge, but also catch the live loops of the facing at the same time, thus binding them off. Of course, the edge is already stabilized with waste yarn.  So, we have to remove the waste yarn, stitch by stitch, to make room for the permanent slip stitch along the same edge.  This is where the other purpose of the waste yarn appears:  removing the waste yarn stitch-by-stitch serves as an exact guide for which column to follow in this grand finale step.

As to how the work proceeds, if you look at the below schematic, you'll see the 3-in-1 trick in action.

On the both schematic and photo, you can see the waste yarn ........ (A on the schematic) coming out one stitch before the permanent yarn (B) goes in through the garment edge ........ and the facing .........

In both the schematic and the photo, the live loops of the facing are colorized red.  As the crochet hook passes by the knitting needle holding the waiting live (red) facing-loops, the hook catches the next loop in line.  It is then inserted upward through the folded edge column, there to catch the lavender running yarn. The photo shows a red loop already caught around the barrel of the hook and the hook already inserted through the edge, ready to draw down a new loop from the running yarn. When the running yarn is drawn down through both loops on the barrel of the crochet hook, the red loop simply disappears under the resulting slip-stitch at the edge. This attaches the facing to the edge, and binds off the facing at the same time, thus trapping the cut ends in between--a real 3-in-1 trick. A single stitch is left around the barrel of the crochet hook, and the whole process begins again by catching the next red loop from the waiting line.

Final result

Last but not least, here are photos of the finished result--a faced steek, with the cut edges forever tucked out of harm's way.

The back, showing the completed facing (Hmmm--looking at this photo, it seems the lavender wool was splittier than I thought!)

Above: back.  Below: front

The front. If you enlarge, you can see the "stitched" appearance of the lavender yarn along the garment edge. However, the purl anchor-column remains hidden, almost invisible.

In real life, you might make a facing a different color than the sweater: a scarlet facing on a plain gray sweater would be a fantastic design element, for example.  However, it would probably be more common to use a thinner yarn in the same color.  The lavender-on-green theme of this post was more for demonstration purposes.

* * *

Whew.  Such a long post. Buttonholes, zippers, sleeve openings, color knitting and other real world adaptations of this basic steek must await further postings.   Until then, good knitting!
* * *
Addendum, 2016.  Not so beta anymore.  Here is a link to a Ravelry page where this trick was used with modifications to (beautifully!) install a zipper on a Henley-neck. 
 * * *
--TK

* IMHO, of the three common brand names of wool listed, the Patton's Classic Wool is the grabbiest, the Ella Rae Classic the least grabby and the Cascade 220--the green mc yarn used for the sample swatch--of intermediate grabbiness.  The cc I used, the lavender sports weight wool of unknown origin, was both grabby and splitty (sports weight = a weight of yarn, thinner than DK weight, which is normally knit up at 6 or 6.5 st/inch).

** Separating the fabric edge from the garment edge--as we are doing here--is a long-time theme here at TECHknitting blog.   This series explains further (link goes to part 1).

You have been reading TECHknitting blog about steeks.

Steeks--BETA version, part 1: background

This post is the first in a series, showing a new way of creating and facing a steek to secure the edges and hide the cut ends.

Because it's new, it hasn't been time-tested.  However, at a recent teaching event the participants indicated real interest, so I'm writing it up. If you choose to try this trick, heads up! You're a guinea pig in the real-life test lab of knitting.

I believe it will work. I'm pretty sure it won't come out. Further, it's less bulky than many other methods for hiding a cut edge. Yet, I want to stress one more time that, unlike most tricks on this blog, this one is a beta version (beta=testing version). 

If I haven't scared you away, here's some background about steeks.  The actual method starts in the next post after this one.

WHAT'S A STEEK, ANYHOW?

* A STEEK is a trick for slitting an opening (usually a front opening or armholes) into a garment which was knit circularly.  In other words, a sweater might be knit in a tube right to the top, with the front and armhole openings being slit open afterwards with a pair of scissors.  As you can imagine, the main trick with a steek is to prevent the knitting adjoining the cut from coming loose, while at the same time hiding the cut ends forever.  In the trick to be shown in the next post, these important functions are performed by a strip of fabric added alongside the steek-cut, a strip called a FACING.

* A FACING is a LINING along a VERTICAL opening.  In this series of posts, we're assuming a facing on the inside of the front band.  The illustrations shows the inside edges of a steeked garment turned outward, showing the facing (in red) which runs up both inside edges of the steek. As stated above, this facing is the part which prevents the knitting from unraveling along the cut steek line, while also hiding the cut edges of the steek-cut.

ADVANTAGES of STEEKING
Why would any sane person take a scissors to a project as labor-intensive as a hand-made sweater? Why not just knit pieces in the first place?

Steeking is a traditional method, and the old-time knitters were no fools: they couldn't go out and buy sweaters at the mall. They had to have had good reason for everything they did. In fact, there are several good reasons to steek.

Knitting on circular needles (making a tube) means you never have to purl. So, if your flat knitting "rows out," working a tube will solve that issue.

Stranded color knitting and circular knitting go together really well, also.  You're always working on the front face of the fabric: easy to see the pretty patterns developing correctly.  Further, you never have to purl back in stranded knitting, and stranded purling is worth avoiding.

STEEKING HAS SOME DOWNSIDES, TOO
While steeking has many advantages, there are disadvantages, too.  In the comments, reader Uehltje points out that cutting is permanent.  While there are other ways to restyle a poorly-fitting garment, it is unquestionably true that you cannot restyle a steeked garment by pulling out the yarn and re-knitting it.

Another disadvantage is that any steek, no matter how cleverly constructed, is going to be bulkier than an ordinary knit edge.  This is because the cut ends of the yarn simply must go somewhere, and there's no place for them to go other than the vicinity of the cut edge itself.

Further, some steeked sweaters are going to wind up bulkier than others. Specifically, a faced steek on a one color garment is going to be less bulky than on two-color knitting.  This is because, in stranded knitting, two strands have to be hidden for each row knit (one strand of each color in that row), whereas only one end has to be hidden per row in a one-color garment.

While some bulk at the front opening of a garment might not be too troublesome, an armhole steek puts bulk in the underarm area, an uncomfortable drawback with no really good solution.

Because of the bulk issue, it's best to try out a steek in the yarn you want to use for the garment, before knitting an entire garment and then discovering the steek is too bulky for your taste. The next post is a tutorial showing the steek worked up on just such a swatch.

BEST YARN TO USE
Steeks are traditional to knitting cultures where wool is used, most famously northern climates, such as Norway.  The reason is twofold.  First, at that time and place, almost all yarn was wool, so when this technique was invented, wool was it.  Second, wool actually works best for this trick, and by "wool," I mean plain ordinary non-superwash sheep's wool.  This is because wool is, well, woolly.  Each strand is essentially a stack of scales.  When bumped or rubbed, you could see how such scales would hook together.

Wool fibers **

Contrast this to polyester, acrylic and all other oil-based yarns: oil is slippery, and so are its babies.  Further, oil-based fiber is extruded (squirted out) through shower-nozzle type devices, in a single smooth scale-less strand. Even if artificially crimped, as some newer synthetic yarns are, this stuff is slick at the most fundamental level.

Silk is just as slippery as oil-based yarns, being also completely scale-less.  Further, just like extruded oil-based yarn, silk, too, is an extruded fiber--it's just that a silkworm is doing the extruding, not a machine.

Plant-derived yarns, such as cotton and linen aren't as smooth as silk and oil-based yarns, because they do have growth rings, twists and other natural irregularities.  However, these don't compare to the irregular scales of sheep's wool, so these yarns, too, are slippery.

Bottom line: if you're planning to steek, the inherent grabbiness of ordinary sheep's wool is your ally in the fight against unraveling, whereas the inherent slippery-ness of the other fibers would be one more thing to fight against: if you haven't clicked any other link, click this one to check out a side-by-side close-up photo of the various fibers.

PREVIEW of the TECH-METHOD
The TECH experimental method shown in the next post is based on the crocheted slip stitch.  The finished product includes a facing which hides the cut edges, and prevents any stress being transmitted to the fragile cut edge. The next post is a tutorial of the new method, as worked on a swatch.  See you then!

Until next time, good knitting --TK
________________________________

** The illustration of wool fibers is from the copyright-free book "The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing" by Watson Smith, available through Project Gutenberg. 

A new trick for fixing errors in color knitting--"controlled drop"

Here's an "unvention" called "controlled drop" which can be used for correcting errors in color knitting.

The problem

Suppose you're working stranded two-color knitting,* and notice a mistake somewhere several rows down.  Theoretically, you could drop (run out) the column of stitches in which the mistake lies, fix the error, then latch the column back up.

However, when you try this trick with color knitting, suddenly, there's a problem. The stitches you've dropped form a ladder, yes, but the strands of the other color running behind also form a ladder.  Trying to re-latch the correct strands in the correct order is like playing cat's cradle.

Today's post offers a way to drop columns in stranded knitting with confidence, easily keeping track of which strand goes where.  I call this new trick "controlled drop." It is a variant on the ordinary drop-column method of fixing fabric. In fact, the two methods are so close, it makes to start with a review of column-dropping in ordinary knitted fabric.

Background: the drop column method

on regular (one color) knitted fabric

 As the illustration shows, any one knitted stitch (red) lays along a column (dark purple).

Columns in knitting

In fact, if you've ever had a ladder in a nylon stocking, you already know about columns in knitting.  When one stitch comes undone, the stitches below it are released from their interlocked state, and return to being simple lengths of yarn, the "rungs" of the ladder, we might say.  These rungs are shown in red below. You can fix errors made several rows earlier by purposely running out a ladder and fixing the error. You then re-latch the ladder, using a crochet hook, as shown.

Latching up ladder rungs (red) to re-form knit stitches

There's more stuff you can do with the drop column method** but this little review is all that's needed to set the stage for the color knitting trick.

Fixing mistakes in color (stranded) knitting

Below is an illustration of an error--a (red) inadvertent purl--in color knitting.

An error in color knitting, several rows down--
more complicated to fix than in plain knitting
because of the more complicated nature of the fabric

As you see, if you were to freely drop a ladder, you'd have two sets of strands going.

When the stitches are freely released, it's easy to get confused
between the back strands and the strands formed by
the newly released stitches

Which the heck strand should you pick up?  Sometimes the back strands are above the stitch strands, sometimes below.  This illustration is bad enough, but in real life, the strands are far more bunched together, often behind one another, making them invisible unless you flip the fabric. So, what's the cure?

The way I think about it, the confusion in picking up happens because, when you freely run out a column, what you're really losing is information. Before the drop, the column contained important information: the stitch-stack order--that is to say the color and position of each stitch in the column. Behind the column lay an ordered set of strands. Once the stitches are freely dropped, not only is the stitch-order information lost, but so is info about the relationship between the stitch yarn and the strand yarn.

Recapturing that information means you have to remember/look up the order of the original stitch-stack.  However, simply knowing which stitch ought to come next isn't enough--you'll also need to grab the correct length of yarn from the tangle of released stitches and back strands. X-ray vision would also be handy, so you could see both fabric faces at once.

In a nutshell, the problem is that you have to drop the column to fix the mistake, yet by so doing, you lose the information the column encodes. As is evident, what's needed is a way to drop the column, yet retain the information. That's where today's unvention comes in, a trick I called "controlled drop."

Controlled drop

A ladder in stockinette fabric is capable of being latched in either direction. So, what if, as soon as you released a stitch at the top of a column, you took a crochet hook in hand and instantly re-latched it into a new, upside-down column? With this trick, each stitch is loosened only for the amount of time it takes to unpick it from the original column.  It's then instantly latched up again, this time going the other way. Also, with this trick, the strands are never involved, so they can lay quietly undisturbed on the fabric back.

Instantly re-latching lets you drop, yet saves the information.  Stated otherwise, when re-latched upside-down, the stitches are reversed, yet each stitch's order (relationship to other stitches) remains undisturbed, as does the relationship of the stitch to the back strands.

The process is called "controlled drop" because the dropping process is controlled: the column is let out stitch-by-stitch, rather than a freely dropped column of the kind you would use in plain (non-color) knitting.

How-to

Start at the top.  Once two stitches have been released, insert the crochet hook under the second "ladder rung" and draw the second rung though the first.  This maneuver creates the foundation for the upside-down re-latch column you'll be making.

The first step in creating the upside-down
"controlled drop" column

Continue in this manner, drawing each stitch released from the original column into the new upside-down column.  As you can see, it's possible to unlatch and re-latch in a single motion.  The red circle shows how this is done--the crochet hook unlatches the stitch from the original column by grabbing it where it arises out of the fabric (the side of the stitch).  When this part of the stitch is yanked, the stitch-loop pops free, turning into a single strand of yarn (a "ladder rung") which can be instantly re-latched into the new upside-down column of the controlled drop.

A single stitch being drawn from the original
(right-side up) column into the (upside-down)
"controlled drop" column

Using this method, you keep un-and-re-latching until you get to where the problem stitch lies, and can fix the error.

With the problem solved, you reverse the process.  In other words, insert the crochet hook into the loop of the newly-corrected stitch--the hook will now be be the bottom stitch in the original, right-side up column.  You then loosen and re-latch the upside-down stitches, one by one, from their portion of the column.  This restores the original direction of all the stitches in the column.  At the top, the last loop is returned to the knitting needles.

Once your column is safely corrected with the top loop secured, stretch the fabric around the fixed column several times. The fabric will settle down to look exactly like it did before you released the column: the stitches will be in the correct order, the strands remain undisturbed.  The only difference is, the error is gone, fixed by you at the interface between the controlled drop and the original column.

Good knitting, TK

* For more on the basics of stranded color knitting, here are some links:
Color knitting how to, part 1--background 
Color knitting how to, part 2--two colors, one in each hand
Color knitting how-to, part 3--knitting with two colors on one hand AND three color knitting 
Color knitting how-to, part 4--multi-color knitting, one color at a time, also called multiple-pass knitting 
Color knitting how-to, one color at a time: slipped stitch knitting 

**If you do find that you want to know more about fixing knitted fabric via the drop column method, here are some links:
Correcting errors in the rows below, part 1: moving a decrease
Correcting errors in the rows below, part 2: moving an increase
Correcting errors in the rows below, part 3: adding an increase
Correcting errors at the side edges of your knitting 
Fixing a run in garter or seed stitch 

PS:  The whole idea of knitting encoding information is not original with me.  The best-known example of encoding comes from the Tricoteuses of the French Revolution, among whom the fictional Madame Defarge  was the most famous.  True, these knitters were encoding a different kind of information (spoken words in a sort of a morse code vs. the order inherent in the fabric itself) but the concept is similar: stitch order encoding information.

PPS:  Controlled drop is not only for color knitting: it can also save your neck in the case of having to drop a single column nearby to complicated shaping.  See, a giant ladder in a lace garment is a headache, especially if YO's are involved, but if you're only dropping a single column to correct a mistake, you have a better chance of setting order out of chaos if you use controlled drop.
You've been reading TECHknitting blog on: "A new trick for fixing mistakes in color knitting--'controlled drop'"

A post in which TECHknitting appears at various places in the knitting world

Even though I recently wrote that there would be no posts for a while, as I (try to, anyhow) work on new ways of color knitting, life does not stand still.  TECHknitting has recently popped up in a few places around the internet and in the print world, so I'm briefly breaking my self-imposed silence to offer up some links to these--

1. Knitpicks Podcast Interview with TECHknitter (that's me!)

Recently, Knitpicks blog posted a podcast interview with me about the concept of keeping track of lace patterns via a TECHknitting unvention: chart-charts.  I had no idea my voice was so high, or that I talked so fast...   Ah well.

Kelley Petkun, the owner of Knitpicks, did the interview.  Kelley started the podcast with a very succinct definition of knitted lace, then followed up with some mighty fine questions.  Hear the podcast interview here.

2. I am not Anna Zilboorg (although I am sure she is a very lovely person)

Also recently, Knitting Daily posted a teaser for a pay-to-view buttonhole video by Anna Zilboorg.  Accompanying the teaser were some TECHknitting illustrations about sewing on buttons from a buttonhole article I wrote for Interweave Knits in 2010.  In the comments, some folks were wondering whether I am, in fact, the same person as Anna Zilboorg. I'm confident Anna is a very lovely person, and an excellent knitter, and I'm honored by the speculation.  And yes, those are my illustrations accompanying the teaser.  However, the fact is, I'm not Anna and Anna's not me.

 If you want to see Anna's buttonhole, you can follow this link to download her ptv buttonhole. If you want to see my tulip buttonhole, it is here, for free.

3. Late to the party

Not so recently--back in January, actually-- Yarnwise Magazine (a British publication) had an article by me about fixing errors in knitting.  If in the US, it's still on the shelf at Barnes and Noble (excuse the crappy phone-photo, please, that's all I had when last at B & N). If in the British Isles, it might be in libraries, even though, because I'm late to the party, the January issue probably isn't for sale at the newsstand (news agent?) any longer...

Good knitting--TK

Cuff-to-cuff: dealing with with the body stitches

The morning's e-mail brought an interesting question about casting on extra fabric in a cuff-to-cuff construction.*  Reader A. writes:

I am working on a baby sweater knit from one cuff across to the other.... I am done with the sleeve and about to cast on for the front and back. I read your post on the backward e loop. I am wondering if you have any further techniques for this situation. The cast-on edge will be hidden in the seam.

(*In case you are wondering what this letter is all about, it may help to know that "cuff-to-cuff" garments are knit sideways.  As this relates to the illustrations below, the garment is started at the cuff of the sleeve at the lower edge, and ends at the cuff at the upper edge. In other words, the direction of knitting is from bottom to top, as these garments are oriented in the illustrations. The problem which Reader A is asking about relates to casting on the stitches which are to be the foundation of the fabric for the long edges just past the widest part of the bottom sleeve.)

Here's the answer:

To create the foundation for the body stitches, you could use the backwards loop cast on, with the modification shown in THIS POST. However, the problem with this trick for a very long edge is the problem of all cast-on's, and that is tension.  For such long edges (and so many of them!) you might want to consider a different approach.

Cast on the extra number of stitches you need for the body in scrap (waste) yarn and knit a few rows--you will have two pieces of scrap fabric ending with live stitches--these are shown as gray rectangles on the illustration below. Once these waste yarn rectangles have been created, simply knit the stitches for the body along the new stitches you have created with the waste yarn--the waste yarn stitches take the place of the cast-on. (This is a refinement on a method known as COWYAK).

When you get all the way across the body to where the other sleeve begins, cast off the body stitches and make the second sleeve, as directed by your pattern. At the end of the project, carefully remove the waste yarn and cast OFF the live stitches. The four cast-off edges are shown in red on the illustration below.

A cast off can be adjusted or even taken out and re-worked, meaning that you can adjust the tension of the stitches formerly on the waste yarn fabric when you get to the project end.  Another advantage of casting off the lower edge at the end, instead of casting on at the beginning, is that four long edges for the body match exactly for method of construction.  Matching both the tension and the construction of all four edges means that the two long body seams are more likely to look and drape identically, since they have the same amount of yarn inside each seam, and are the same finished length.

- - -

An variation on this approach is that when you get to the other side of the body, instead of casting OFF the long edges, you could knit those off with waste yarn also for a few rows before you start the sleeve.  The result is that all four long body edges wind up on waste yarn fabric--the four waste yarn rectangles are shown in gray on the illustration below.

If using this variation, then at the end of the project, you can remove the waste yarn from all four long edges, so that you once again have live stitches, as shown by the blue edges on the illustration below.

Once you have live stitches on all four edges, you can simply 3-needle bind off the live stitches at each long body seam--a situation many knitters find easier than seaming-by-sewing.


Good knitting, TK

Splitting knit fabric into two pieces: a very quick trick

 I made a sweater sleeve, but didn't like the sleeve-cap.  I will eventually unravel the cap and re-use the yarn, but for now, wanted to keep the old cap around to compare to the re-knit.  Therefore, I split the fabric into two parts, here's a little short video showing how I did it, it's a very quick trick--

This is a quick method of length reassignment surgery.

It lets you split off fabric very quickly and accurately, along an single row, and does not affect the live loops--the tugging to get the snipped yarn loose looks like it would distort the underlying fabric, but in all the years I have been doing this, the live loops are always in perfect shape once the tugging ends.  You do lose the amount of yarn in one row, but this seems a small price to pay for not having to sit and squint at the fabric to unpick the snipped row.

Good knitting--TK

Reworking an old sweater: a job for the Garde Tricot

In classic French cuisine, one of the standard kitchen positions is called garde manger, which translates literally into "guard of the food."  Among other things, the Chef garde manger is responsible for taking significant leftovers, such as an excess of lobster, and turning it into a cold dish to be served again another day in different form.  In knitting, when a garment has come to outlive its original purpose, I think there should be a garde tricot--a guard of the knitting--who reworks the knit garment into something which can be worn again another day.

Here we have an old gray sweater, made in the infancy of my knitting career (I saw with interest that this was actually the first garment I ever made with jogless stripes) 

Before "garde-tricot" treatment

After "garde-tricot" treatment

Although this sweater was much worn in its day, the person-for-whom-it-was-made and I eventually parted company (but not before I got the sweater back!)  For many years, it sat in a cedar closet.  Finally the time came when another person came to want to wear it. However, in its original state, it was too long and the neckline did not suit.  

The turtleneck grew right from the
sweater top--I evidently had not yet
discovered neck shaping

This garment was knit in the round, which meant there were no seams to get in the way.  Had the garment been made in pieces, the first step would have been to undo the seams, then unravel the individual pieces as needed. (BTW?  Any garments I make with seams, I always use a different color yarn--close, but not exact--to seam with, so that I can take the seams out in some future re-styling event, without snipping into the garment by accident.)

...unraveled the yarn down to the
point where the new neck edge was to begin...

The sweater was made so long ago, there was no hope of finding excess yarn in stash. The unraveled yarn therefore had to be de-kinked and re-used.  I snipped a single stitch at the edge of the neck and, as shown above, unraveled the yarn down to the point where the new neck edge was to begin. I put the loose stitches onto a knitting needle to re-knit the neck. 

Excess length being removed

At the bottom, I removed the excess length: I snipped a stitch, then unraveled in both directions, catching the stitches onto a needle.

Reworked sweater before blocking

Above, you can see the new neck and new bottom band, together with the excess length, now removed.  The neck is a perfectly standard crew neck.  The back of the garment was raised by doing three series of short rows: one stretched from front shoulder seam around the back to the other front shoulder seam; the second and third stretched from the back shoulder seam across to the other back shoulder seam.  This raised the back of the garment 6 rows (just over an inch) above the front. Combined with the bottom the neck opening being lowered, the front-to-back differential supplies the neck shaping so sadly lacking in this sweater's first life.

BOTTOM BAND DETAILS

On the bottom band, I used my trick for transition zones, modified as follows:

Round 1: (first row of dark gray): knit all the way around, shown by blue stitches/arrows in illustration below--as you can see, this extra round prevented the puckering of the ribbing from traveling into the lighter stripe above the ribbing

Round 2: slip the knits wyib (with yarn in back) and purl the purls--

Round 3: Knit the knits and purl the purls

Round 4: as round 2: the elongated knits which resulted from rounds 2 and 4 are shown by the red stitches/arrow, below  

Rounds 5-12: as round 3

close-up of the transition zone tricks

As shown by the photo below, the ribbing was finished off by knitting around rounds 13-15, which makes a rolled-over edge for the ribbing, a trick which means that the edge of the FABRIC isn't the edge of the GARMENT)

close up of rolled edge
on lower edge of bottom band

Round 16: bind off with a chain bind off, using the "OK" alternative for the last stitch from the post about circular binds off. 

NECK OPENING DETAILS:

To knit the neck above the bottom of the opening, I worked around-and-back, meaning that I actually worked flat, knitting there and purling back, as shown by the below schematic--the green lines show the original circular work, the blue lines/arrow show the short rows at the neck edge. At each neck edge, rather than decreasing stitches, I held all the stitches live.  In other words, in the gray front section, I did not bind off as I worked the neck, but transferred all the center-of-of-the-neck stitches onto a scrap piece of yarn, then added additional live stitches at each neck edge as I came to them via short row, rather than binding them off. 

Schematic of neck edge showing short rows (blue)
area of live stitches (front and back, gray)
as well as edges with no live stitches (red) where live 
stitches had to be picked up, prior to bind-off

In other words, if you think about it, what I was really doing at the neck edge was knitting short rows--each of those blue rows got a little shorter as more neck-edge stitches were transferred to the holder, there to join the live stitches from the previous rows. Each time I came to the neck edge from either side to drop off more stitches onto the holder, I worked a wrap-and-turn. 

Once all the stitches for the neck front were decreased (ie: transferred to the scrap yarn) and the neck line finished, I had the back-of-the-neck stitches live (gray on above schematic) the front-of-the-neck stitches live (gray on above schematic) and a stretch between them (red) where the fabric edge (straight part of the curve of the neck) showed, but there were no live stitches.  Along this straight red part, where there were no live stitches, and using light gray yarn, I picked up stitches through this fabric edge at what seemed to me an appropriate rate.  I then had live light gray stitches all the way around the entire neck.  

The next thing I did was to bind off all the live stitches (including the ones I had just picked up along the red areas).  I used the dark gray yarn to do the bind off. Does it seem odd to you to purposely pick up stitches, just to bind them off?  The first reason I did it was to get a decorative and uninterrupted line of chains around the neck edge.  However, there was a structural reason, also: not only did I want to reinforce the neck edge along the back of the neck to prevent slipping, but I actually wanted to go all the way around with the reinforcement: the sweater is old, the yarn somewhat fragile, the new wearer a young adult fond of pulling at the necks of every garment worn.  I hope that a continuous bind off will help prevent horrid accidents when the neck-tugging begins. (Needless to say, the bind off was done VERY loosely, otherwise, there would be a problem getting the head through the hole.)

The wraps from the wrap-and-turn stitches were lifted off the underlying stitches and knit together with them.  The only exception is that, about a quarter of the way up the curve of the neck on both sides, instead of lifting one of the wraps and knitting it together, I used this lifted wrap as if it were a free-standing stitch.  This added a little ease along the curve.  In other words, this trick added one extra stitch at the sharpest part of the curve on each neck-side, and this was done to prevent puckering. 

As shown below, the bind off was worked so as to leave the dark gray chains showing on the sweater surface.  These chains are shown by the bottom double-headed red arrow.  I then picked up new stitches THROUGH the bind off by holding the yarn on the outside of the garment and drawing a loop UP (towards the neck hole) through the chain bind off--one loop into each chain, with the loops drawn up in such a way as to leave the entire chain exposed on the surface.  The thin red lines show the method and direction in which the loops were pulled up: the dotted portion is the part of the loop which passes through the chain, the top part of the loop is the actual picked-up stitch, the bottom part of each loop hides between the chains of the bind off.

Close-up of neck band

Once I had live stitches all the way around, I knit a short band (4 rows high) then worked a purl round to make a nice sharp fold-edge, then three additional rounds on the inside for a facing. (In the finishing process, the live loops at the bottom of the facing are pulled down so long on the inside, that you really do need at least one fewer rounds on the inside of a facing than on the outside.  Having fewer rounds on the inside of a facing also helps prevent the facing from rolling outwards).

The live stitches of the facing were tacked (sewn) down to make a hem inside the garment, using the overcast stitch: one stitch for each live loop. If you go to try this yourself, the situation seems like an impossible mess, with the inside of the facing at least twice as wide as the fabric you are trying to tack it to.  However, as you tack each stitch down, the mess lessens.  The final result, contrary to first expectation, is quite neat and tidy, as shown below. 

Close-up, inside of neck hem (facing)--the
live stitches have been sewn down with
the overcast stitch

The grand finale of the neck edge was to take matching sock yarn and adapt my "neat little edging" in slip stitch for the ribbing around the neck, matching the chains of the edging to the direction of the chains in the chain bind off. The sock-yarn edging is shown by the top double-headed red arrow two illustrations above.  Again, this was to reinforce the neck in preparation for the inevitable neck-tugging in its future, again, this had to be done loosely. 

FINISHING DETAILS

The last step was to wash and block the garment. I blocked it quite a bit longer and narrower, but still substantially shorter than the original.

This red towel has been washed so often,
I knew it wouldn't bleed.  However, if in doubt,
use a white towel.

In truth, if I'd had my wits about me, I would have blocked it BEFORE I knit on the new neck and bottom bands: bands don't need to be blocked and brand-new bands are delightfully elastic.  Oh well, I'll try to remember to block before knitting the bands the next time I rework an old sweater (although there are fewer and fewer in that closet, as more of the old sweaters escape).

a hole

Ooo--I'm wrong again, there was one more step: like many old garments, this sweater had developed some holes, as shown to left.  Worse, it had mysteriously become stained.  The yarn was weakened over the stained area--evidently the stains ate away at the yarn.   I spent an hour or so with a dull-pointed needle and some reclaimed yarn, duplicate stitching over the holes as well as over the stains, so that the stains did not become holes as the sweater was worn.  Also, reinforcing the stained areas made it possible to give them special attention when washing, whereas if these areas were not reinforced, the special attention would have shredded the already-weakened yarn.

Once washed and blocked, the stains lessened and the duplicate stitch flattened down.

duplicate stitch over stain

As shown to the right, only in extreme close-up can you really see where the duplicate stitching was done, and only because the garment hasn't been worn much in its new re-worked state.  Over time, even that residual uneven-ness of the columns will straighten out. A tiny bit of the stain still shows, so you can tell what it looked like before the duplicate stitch--click on photo to enlarge, stain peeks out at lower center.

Below, you can see from the inside that there were actually quite a lot of spots duplicate-stitched over (and yes, I will work in all those ends before I finally sign off on this garde-tricot project, using my new favorite method, a knit-picker.)

ends left dangling from the duplicate stitch

Good (re-)knitting--TK