There are many things in life that should not mix – oil and water, me and sambucca, Bros and Wet Wet Wet fans (one for the oldies there…) and – as all knitters know – kntting and scissors.
A little while ago I broke this rule, and made my first attempt at steeking some knitting. Basically, you knit something, then sew a couple of lines of stitches up it, then cut through it. Seems simple enough, huh? Let’s find out.
The subject for our operation is a teacosy for Joel, the guitarist in Sunday Driver. On the request of Chandy (our singer, and also his beloved wife), I made a teacosy with the band’s name on it. Cool or what? (don’t answer that…)
I decided to steek the teacosy in one place to make a hole for the teapot spout. To start with, I put in a few sturdy lines of fairly atrocious sewing, cursing the fact that I turned down ownership of the family sewing machine in exchange for a slow cooker:
First sew your steek...
The sewing from the inside. It doesn't look any better.
Next, take a fortifying drink and go in with the scissors:
Going in for the kill - eeek!
OMG! I totally cut a hole in my knitting!
Unfortunately, this nerve-wracking operation didn’t quite work out as planned:
Dammit! Not quite big enough
Yup – the hole wasn’t big enough. Yes, the spout could poke through, but it looked decidedly silly. There was only one thing for it – suck it up, rinse and repeat. I did some more sewing, and some more horrific cutting.
Ta-dah! Much better. Note the tasteful underwear catalogue in the background...
Finally, I sewed down the rough edges and the masterpiece was finished:
The world's first - and probably only - Sunday Driver teacosy. Joel loved it.
Drunk on success, I’m now attempting a steeked fairisle cardigan for my little niece Chloe. I will not be attempting it without the use of a sewing machine. Wish me luck…
If you want a simple sewing machine, have you seen John Lewis’ pastel range ? See : http://www.johnlewis.com/230657780/Product.aspx
Not reduced in the sale but still a good price. Don’t know if it’ll cope with knits though.
Cute! But I think I need something a bit more heavy-duty to cope with knitted fabric.
K
Oooh, you brave woman! I like the results.
It was terrifying. The next steeked thing in the pipeline is going to be even worse
Definitely need to get hold of my sister’s sewing machine before I try it.
Pingback: Extreme knitting – Chloe’s cardigan « You do too much