steeking?

[billmcc]

What is steeking?

[Caradoc]

What is steeking?

To the best of my knowledge, it's a knitting technique.

What's the context for your question?

[Paul Henry]

it's a way of allowing armholes to be knitted , in the round - continuos needles-as in shetland or Norwegian type jjumpers. it is basically knitting an extra bit of stocking stitch, which can then be cut when the sleeves are added to the body. I means that you can carry on knitting without have to make a break for the sleeves . A strange technique but works very well..

[Schultz]

In kiltmaking, it's the process whereby one stitches down the pleats horizontally on the inside about an inch above the fell. It helps to keep everthing in a nice, ordered package above the fell so once can easily add the canvas and the lining.

[Southern Breeze]

It's also what happens when you get your kilt dirty and never wash it.

Schultzs description is spot on.

[chasem]

or, in the context of kilts, it refers to a line of stitching done around the pleats just above the fell to stabilize the pleats ;)

edit: blast my habits of leaving a page open for several minutes before actually replying

[way2fractious]

Schultz and chasem explained the term for what is used in kiltmaking.

The reason for steeking in a traditional kilt is because the kiltmaker has to cut out an awful lot of excess material generated by all those pleats; below the hip line all that fabric makes for great "swishing", but above the hip line it causes bulkiness, weight, and insulation.

With the pleat material cut out above the hip line, the pleats below have nothing to "hang from", so the steeking stitches create a hidden, stabilized place for the pleats to hang from in a nice, neat, vertical fashion.

Often, casual kilts with fewer, wider pleats do not have the material cut out. The pleats stabilize themselves from above the hip line and don't need the steeking. (I believe Barb's book says the word, steeking, comes from an older language and means, stitching.)

[Pleater]

The basic meaning is 'close the gap' as in 'steek the gate' - shut and latch the gate.

So it is apt for making a link between front and back when knitting a jumper and sewing across the pleats to join them together for mutual support.

The jumpers are usually in stocking stitch using two colours in a row patterns - the steek is either done by twisting the two yarns round eachother to bridge the gap or knitting alternate colours for so many stitches. When the steek is cut the twisted yarns are knotted and the ends enclosed when sewing the sleeve in, or the checkerboard strip is cut down the middle and sewn onto the inside of the sleeve.

The word has very Northern origins.

[Barb T]

Steeking is something that doesn't show once a kilt is done because the lining covers it. It's also a step that gets skipped (or skimped on) in kilts not made by trad standards.

B

[Southern Breeze]

Steeking is also done in Haggis hunting. You have to steek up on them...