Ok before I start I know John will tell me NOT to do this! :-)

Now . . .

I have a sweater that I am going to steek as it is knitted and in the round.

I took my swatch and experimented on that. I crocheted and cut and picked up sts. for the button band and even sewed down the inside flap. To me it seems to all be working well and has a very nice look to it.

So is there anything I am missing??? Any other insight on this would be great!

So tell the good the bad and the ugly of this technique!!??

The reason I want to crochet the steek is my sewing machine is not with me and that dang thing has a mind of its own. I can control a crochet hook better than a machine with an engine in it!

People were steeking before there were sewing machines.

I've seen articles about crocheting the edges before cutting the seek -- and I think people have even done this with cotton. The one time I steeked, I hand sewed using the back stitch a couple of times.

I crocheted the steek on the one sweater I steeked. I used two rows of chain up the edges. I retrospect I think I might have done the crochet a couple more stitches in from the cut edge, but it worked out well and I had no problems with it.

I like the crocheted steek, but it is a bit bulky -- depending on yarn used. Hand-sewing sounds good to me, but I haven't tried it yet.

Check out Eunny Jang's 7-part tutorial on steeks! She covers crocheted steeks, and it sounded like a great technique.
http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/...ronicles_part_i.html

thanks I have seen Eunny's steek info as well. I went to my LYS with my swatch and we all agree it looks fine so tomorrow I will get it taken care of! YA HOOOOOOOO!

Absolutely right, dear Nancy, don't do this!

Seriously, the only even remotely successful way of doing this is to weave each strand back into its own row. Fully-fashioned knitting is a few million percent better, that's why as soon as it was discovered it superceded earlier techniques.

You have been warned!

Best wishes, John

As mentioned before, I totally agree with John on the subject of steeks. For children or very thin persons, steeks may work well. But I have a fully fashioned body and I love knitting because it can be fully fashioned to fit me comfortably and unbulkily. Steeks will just have to wait until another lifetime, perhaps when I am flat like a paper doll.

But if you can't resist the impulse to cut up your beautiful knitting, I sincerely wish you all the very best!!!

It has been steeked, cut and it looks wonderful!

Wonderful, Nancy! Congratulations!

I know that steeking and cutting knits is possible, but I just can't see myself doing that! I'm sure someday I'll be eating my words on this, but I just can't imagine deliberatly cutting my handknits. But I'm glad it worked for you and I'm sure it looks wonderful.

It does look great! It is not so hard for me to cut what I have knitted, but sewing it is hard.

I am trying to finish this project up and it seems to take as long to finish as it did to knit!

When I worked as a tailor, there would be a place in any project where there was a good six hours of finishing work to do but it looked done to the eye. When My dad would ask me how it was going I would tell him "I'm down to the button holes."
One day when He was rebuilding my faithful VW beetle's engine I asked him how it was going. He thought it over and looked at me and said," I'm down to the button holes."
Now a days I would say" I'm picking up the bands and the collar. Same thing.

It does seem amazing, doesn't it, that what seems so simple to do takes so long. It's just a collar, or a button band, or whatever, and it just seems to take so long!