I've always enjoyed knitting fairisle patterns, so when Natasha decided to stock 50+ shades of Jamieson & Smith's pure Shetland jumper weight at The Fibreworks Oxford, it was the perfect excuse to knit her a sample in some J&S I had left over from a previous project. And a perfect opportunity to try out a technique I'd never tackled before - steeking.

To the uninitiated, steeking in where you cut through your knitting (that's where the eek bit comes in!) in order to create an opening, such as an armhole. It can revolutionise fairisle knitting because it allows you to knit in the round on circular needles which, in turn, means that every row is a knit row - much easier when stranding the different colours. You knit a cylinder, in effect, and then cut through the knitting, securing the edges on the inside in order to create whatever openings are needed.

So I chose a sweet tea cosy pattern from the Knit Real Shetland book and set to work. Just played around with the colours as I went trying to get a good contrast between the light and dark colours in each row.


The steeks were to be at either side for the teapot handle and spout, so a special section of 12 extra stitches was knitted at the sides. You can see this on the right where the stripes are.

Once the knitting was completed, there was the small matter of darning in the loose ends ...

Then came the scary bit - cutting down the middle of the steek sections with a pair of sharp scissors and a steady hand.

The cut edges were then folded back on the inside ...

... and stitched down to keep them secure ...

... leaving a nice smooth edge to the opening.

Finally, I gave the tea cosy a quick wash in cool water and blocked it over our big teapot to give the stitches a chance to relax.

And, of course, there was the inevitable moment when some nutter put it on their head!

Have to say, it fitted very well and I can feel another hat version coming on.  This time perhaps without the steeks and maybe with a different motif to replace the little green teapots.

Eileen shows off the little top knitted with love for her granddaughter using a Louisa Harding pattern from the Jesse book together with Debbie Bliss Prima yarn.

Clare and her daughter came by to pick up her lovely basket of Artesano yarns - first prize in the Festival raffle.