Shetland Slipover: My first steeking

Steeking had been one of those techniques that I always thought about with a bit of dread and a sense of obligation. Obligation because as a fairly frequent fair isle knitter, it's something I felt I just had to try. I decided this complex fair isle was as good a chance as any, so bit the bullet and had a go at it.

I followed the (very minimal to say the least) instruction of Hillhead Slipover, and cast on additional 12 sts for steeks. At fist it felt as if I was overdoing it, as most instruction for steeking I found online had 5 additional sts, but later on I was very thankful for those generous additional sts.

As for steeking and picking up stitches, I found this instruction by Quince & co easiest to follow. Diagrammes FTW.

It did look quite a mess after I cut the steeks. And this was when I really saw the value of those generous extra sts.

I couldn't find detailed tutorial for finishing steeks. This article has good inventory of all the options, but is rather slim on the actual 'how to do it' part. In the end I chose to finish the seams with blanket stitches. It does the job, but it's not the tidiest finish, so I think I'm going to try my hand at faced finish next.

So what's the verdict?
On the debit side, Reinforcing, cutting, and finishing the edges was a pain. Although cutting the stitches was quite satisfying in a wrong way. And I won't be able to frog and reuse the yarns.
On the credit side, not having to purl the fair isle was a big big plus and it's this that has me convinced that steeking is the way to go.

It was a labour intensive but satisfying project. The pink and yellow yarns were hand-dyed, with avocado and food colouring which made this project even more rewarding.

Ambitious Fair Isle + Steeking

I aim to steadily improve my knitting skills and broaden my range of experiences. One technique that I haven't tried but has been on my radar for a while is steeking. I've been reading The Art of Fair Isle Knitting by Ann Feitelson and learnt that steeking has been the traditional way of shaping the armholes and neck openings in Fair Isle. Since I'm a sucker for doing things the old way, I've decided to bite the bullet and try it out.

I collected suitable yarns from my stash and thankfully I didn't have to buy any new yarn with some improvisation. The brown-pink yarn and the pale yellow one are hand dyed. The pink yarn was first dyed using avocados and then over-dyed with red and yellow food colouring.

I'm going to use the Hillhead Slipover as the base, but follow a different fair isle pattern, traced based on an item I saw online.

It's one third of the pattern I traced. I had to break it out since the software became unreliable with complex patterns. I'm also going to follow the tried and tested basic men's fair isle slipover pattern that I used for my previous projects such as Dunkirk slipover for the stitch count. I still need to figure out the decrease for steeking and I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it!

On top of steeking and the complex fair isle pattern, it'll be my first time to try out corrugated ribbing, so it's going be a handful. Wish me luck!

Some endings and some beginnings

 A lot has changed since my last post. I moved in with my boyfriend Sean to a new place. It's goodbye to my carefree days of living on my own, but we decided it was time.

One of the most exciting things about the new place, apart from the garden, is that I have a space to claim as my crafts room! I can leave things all over the place and don't have to clean up every time after sewing.

Thanks to the new space, I already finished two dresses since I moved in mid-March. 

It's the ever famous McCall's 6696 which deserves its reputation. It was my first time to sew shirt collars with a stand, and the instruction was easy to follow and things worked out perfectly! Next time I'll shorten the bodice just a tad, but otherwise I'm chuffed with this one. 

Next is based on the shirt dress pattern from Gertie's book of better sewing.

This one wasn't as successful. I don't know what I did, but the bottom of the skirt button band keeps rolling back. The instruction was also more difficult to follow due to the rough hand-drawn illustrations. I'd still wear it but this I'll get less use out of this one. 

And one day I might even get a dress form so that I can model it on something other than a cloth hanger.

Even though picking sewing back up means I'm spending less time knitting, it doesn't mean I've been completely neglecting it.

It was Sean's birthday just two days ago, and I finished this slip-on just in time! Once again I used the free Mens fair isle slip-on knitting pattern, but this time I knitted it in round. Now I know why people swear by knitting fair isle in round. It's so much less hassle.

I created the fair isle pattern based on a project I saw on Ravelry. It's quite straightforward and the simple geometry appealed to me. I named the project Escher, because it reminded me of his work Sky and Water I. You can see more details of this work on my Ravelry post.

As soon as I finished with the slip-on I moved on to another project. It's Bestway Tea Time jumper, something I have had in my queue for quite some time.

I'm using old Cascade Heritage Solid yarn for this. It was the 2nd yarn I bought years ago when I first started knitting. It was first knitted into a cardigan, then frogged, knitted into another cardigan, and then frogged again. Hopefully this time it will finally find its purpose because I'm not sure if it can stand another frogging.

Dunkirk Fair Isle Vest

Ever since I started knitting and especially since I started getting into fair isle, I cannot watch a film without noticing all the knit wears.

Dunkirk has got to be the best film I watched this year in cinemas and I wanted to knit the vest that George was wearing, partly because I liked the pattern and the character and partly because I wanted to recreate and keep a small part of something I admire.

I used this 1952 fair isle vest pattern as the base, and created the chart based on this single still image I could find on the internet. This is the second time I used the vest pattern as a base, and I doubt it'll be my last.

(c) Warner Bros, Syncopy Inc.

I made a minor modification to the fair isle pattern because I assume the vest George was wearing was for a teenager, and I didn't want to have too many pattern repeats. I referred to 200 Fair Isle Motifs book to create the chart. 

I started the vest shortly after watching the film in August and finished on Christmas eve, just in time to give it to Sean (my boyfriend) as a Christmas gift. A nice way to wrap up another knitting year, I have to say. :)

You can see it on my Ravelry as well, for more details on the yarns and such.