White knuckle ride, knitting style!

At the end of last year, a Norweigan friend of mine commissioned me to make her son a traditional Scandinavian sweater and trousers, for him to wear when playing outside during the winter in sub-zero temperatures. I've always wanted to knit such a garment so I gladly accepted. However it soon dawned on me that I was going to have to steek the the sweater. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it meant I would have to knit the intricate delicate pattern, then cut it up. Eeek!

However I'm always up for a challenge so I decided to tackle this, together with help from trusty google and youtube for extra tips (what a wonderful resource is the internet!).

For the outfit I used a Norweigan 100% wool washable yarn by Drops called Karisma Superwash, which I bought from Scandanavian Knitting Design. I have used this site a few times and am always impressed by their prices and prompt delivery.

So here is the body of the sweater, all knitted up to the shoulders, but before the steeks are cut. If you look at the edges of the sweater you can just make out the tacking lines I have made for where the steeks are to go.

Next think to do was to sew either side of my tacking lines in order to stop the sweater becoming a heap of threads when it's cut:

Then comes the scary bit:

SCREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now here's the final sweater - all looks well (phew!)

And the matching trousers:


All winging their way to Norway as I write - I hope they fit well and will keep my friend's little boy cosy and warm this winter.

Having now had a go at steeking, I'm not quite as scared of it now. I love the end result, and knitting in the round instead of back and forth does give a lot more flexibility in terms of the patterns you can knit, plus far less in the way of ends to sew in! I would love to make a steeked kauni blanket at some point. I'll just add it to the enormous list of "Things I will probably never get around to making".