How to Steek a Knitted Garment
Steeking is the technique that changed everything for colourwork knitters. The idea sounds alarming when you first hear it: knit extra stitches you're going to cut. Pick up scissors and slice through your knitting. But steeking is a centuries-old, well-proven method that lets you knit colourwork cardigans, add armhole openings, and create any opening you need — all while keeping your colourwork in the round, where it's easiest and most beautiful.
Once you understand how steeking works and why, you'll see it not as a risk but as a liberation. It's what makes traditional Norwegian and Fair Isle colourwork garments achievable for home knitters.
What Is a Steek?
A steek is a column of extra stitches added at the point where you'll eventually cut open the knitting. Think of it as a seam allowance built into the knitting itself.
If you're making a colourwork cardigan, you'd add a steek of 5–7 stitches at the centre front. You knit the entire sweater in the round, treating those steek stitches as a placeholder column. The steek stitches are not part of the actual sweater fabric — they'll be cut and folded away. Because you're knitting in the round the entire time, every row of your colourwork chart reads left to right, and the right side always faces you.
Planning Your Steek
Steek stitches are added in the cast-on and maintained throughout the piece. Five steek stitches is the standard minimum; seven gives more margin for error. For a cardigan centre-front steek, you'd cast on the full sweater circumference plus the steek stitches, placing a stitch marker on each side of the steek column to keep it visually distinct.
In your colourwork, the steek stitches are usually worked in a simple alternating colour pattern — one stitch colour A, next stitch colour B, alternating — to make the cut line obvious. The exact colour doesn't matter since no one will see the steek in the finished garment. Mark the centre of your steek clearly; this is where you'll cut.
Reinforcing the Steek Before Cutting
Never cut without reinforcing first. Reinforcement stitches lock the knitting on each side of the cut line so the fabric can't unravel. There are three main methods.
Crochet Steek Reinforcement (Recommended)
Using a crochet hook and matching yarn, work a slip stitch crochet seam along each side of the steek. You're crocheting two columns of reinforcement — one on each side of the cut line, running along the valley between columns of stitches. This is the method most commonly recommended for hand knitters because it's secure, visible, and reversible if needed before cutting. Use a hook that fits your yarn weight — for DK or worsted weight colourwork, a 3.5 mm hook is usually right.
Machine Zigzag Reinforcement
Run two lines of machine zigzag stitch (one on each side of the planned cut line) using matching sewing thread. Sew through the knitted stitches, not between them. This is fast, extremely secure, and preferred by knitters who have a sewing machine set up. Use a universal needle size 70/10 or 80/12 for most knitting yarn weights. The zigzag stitch has enough stretch to move with the knitting.
Hand-Sewn Reinforcement
Using a tapestry needle and matching yarn, work a backstitch or running stitch along each side of the cut line. Work in the ladder between columns of stitches, catching both legs of each stitch as you go. This is the most time-intensive method but requires no special tools.
The Cutting Process
Once your reinforcement is in place on both sides of the cut line, you're ready to cut. Use sharp scissors — fabric scissors or embroidery scissors with a pointed tip. Blunt scissors will compress and drag the yarn rather than cutting cleanly.
Cut confidently and decisively down the middle of the steek column, between your two reinforcement lines. Do not saw back and forth — commit to clean cuts. If you're nervous, cut a small section first and inspect the result before continuing. The reinforced edges will not unravel. With crochet or machine reinforcement on each side, the cut edge is completely stable.
Finishing the Cut Edges
Fold the steek edges to the inside of the garment and sew them down. Use a whip stitch or slip stitch worked through the edge of the reinforcement and the inside of the garment fabric. The folded steek creates a neat facing on the inside of the cut edge.
For cardigans, a button band is typically knitted or picked up along the cut edge, covering the steek completely. For armhole steeking, the sleeve is picked up or sewn along the cut edge, again covering the steek.
What Yarns Are Safe to Steek?
This is the most critical factor in steeking success. Use feltable wool. Wool fibres have tiny scales on their surface that grab onto each other — this is what makes wool felt and also what makes wool steek edges naturally grip and resist unravelling. Traditional colourwork yarns like Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, Istex Léttlopi, and Drops Karisma are all excellent steekable yarns.
Do not steek superwash wool. The superwash treatment removes those fibre scales to prevent felting — which means the yarn is slippery and steek edges can unravel. If your yarn is superwash, you'll need to rely entirely on your reinforcement stitches with no help from the fibre. It can be done with very thorough reinforcement, but it's not recommended for your first steek.
Alpaca, which is slippery, benefits from extra reinforcement. Pure plant fibres — cotton and linen — are not good candidates for steeking.
Your First Steek
The best first steek project is a small colourwork swatch specifically made for practice cutting. Knit a tube of 50–60 stitches with a 5-stitch steek in a two-colour alternating pattern, reinforce, and cut. Once you've done it once on a low-stakes swatch and seen how stable the reinforced edge is, the technique loses its intimidation completely.
Steeking is a transformative skill. Once you have it, the full world of Nordic, Fair Isle, and Icelandic colourwork opens up to you — because you know you can always knit in the round and cut later. That freedom changes how you approach every colourwork project.