Jon's Knit Blog

The Pattern Reveals Herself

Well, only the first 10 rows, at any rate.

Since it's the middle of the night and the middle of the weekend, I thought I'd answer a few questions posed by some of you beloved readers.

Colorado Jon wanted to know why I was knitting this flat. I assume he thought that since I was purling, I was knitting flat, which is not the case. I was purling every other of the first 10 rows, for the bottom band of "Zauberflote" is in Garter Stitch. In case you didn't know, gentle reader, if you're knitting in the round and want to make garter stitch, you have to purl every other round.

Felicia wanted to know if I think the stripe-steek is more stable and less fray resistant than the checkered steek. My answer is, "I don't know." Honestly, I can't see why there's a difference. My reason to prefer the stripe-steek is that it gives me a super-clear line of EXACTLY where to cut, and that gives me more confidence during that trauamatic scissor moment.

Laura asked, quite simply, "What is a steek." I sent her a good answer in an email, and I'll paste it here:

Steeks are where you cut the knitting. When you're knitting Fair Isle, you knit in the round - so that you're always carrying the unused yarn along the back of the work, and you're always (except on the bottom band, for example) only knitting. But if you're making a Cardi... where is the opening going to go? Where is the armhole going to be? So that's where the steeks are. They're usually 8 stitches across, and part of finishing a steeked sweater is cutting the steeks open, picking up stitches on either side to knit, say, a sleeve or a button band, and then crossstiching the steek so the stitches don't unravel. You only do it like that if you're using Shetland wool, which is VERY sticky and tends not to want to un-stitch itself. Even still, you steam it so it slightly felts before you cut the steek open. And no matter how many steeks you've cut, there's still something scary about it!
:-)

And Steven asked what kind of camera I use to get such "clear close up shots." Well, it's a Nikon D70. And it's cheaper now than when I bought it. Grr. I use a really nice lens which has great macro capability. This is one of the cameras (and one of the lenses, too) that I took with me to Africa. And since we're on that topic, I'll close with another photo from Africa! Can you tell that those blurry things in the background are antelope who are staring, terrified, at the lion?

Posted by Jon at September 25, 2005 12:52 AM