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A Century-Old Traditional Norwegian Weaving Technique (Steek) （Weaves First and Then Cuts）

Views:11     Author:Site Editor     Publish Time: 2019-12-13      Origin:Site

The world of weaving is vast. Each nation has its own unique knitting skills, each of which has its own characteristics. In addition, knitting is an ancient handicraft. Behind each skill, there is often a unique national history. There is no difference between different knitting skills, so being able to master a variety of knitting skills, can not only enrich your own "resource pool", but also broaden your horizons.


1. About Steek Skills

Steek technique is a very traditional Norwegian knitting method, which is widely used in northern Europe and England Shetland area. However, it is believed that there are many knitting enthusiasts in other counties who use this technique intentionally or unintentionally. This technique is often used in the fabric with many changes of pattern and color and complicated patterns. Its English name is Steek. This technique is mainly used to knitting body parts without sleeve holes. After knitting the body, it is necessary to sew the reserved sleeve places with a sewing machine for several times, then cut it. Finally put the sleeves on the reserved places. In addition to sewing machine, people can also use hand sewing or crochet hook. This method ensures the natural transition of pattern change, and avoids the tedious of breaking and reconnecting if the multi-color knitting is woven back and forth.




2. Ancient knitting skills

Steek is a very traditional knitting method in the Shetland area of Norway and England, with a history of more than 100 years. Although this technique is not the most popular choice in the American knitting and british knitting, this method has its own advantage in the design of knitting different designs and colors and more pattern changes. One of the reasons is because this multi-color pattern change and complex design requires a natural color change in the sleeve and neckline design. Steek's technique of knitting completely before tailoring is a strong point in ensuring this. This technique does not require the sewing machine to sew several threads around the part to be cut at the beginning. The original Steek technique was to apply the scissors directly, and then completely rely on the friction resistance between the threads to ensure that they did not fall apart. Therefore, this technique can only highlight its features in the complex patterns of various color transformations. If you change it into a common monochrome flat needle or chemical fiber wool, it will fall apart when you cut it.



3. knitting is a Cultural Heritage

knitting is a kind of cultural heritage. In addition to the regional characteristics, it also evolves with the development of time. Now the industry is so developed that there are few hand-made sweaters. Even if it's handwork, it's also the trend of hobbies, plus the development of handwork skills is also very fast. It's said that the common knitting method now is different from that decades ago. As a result, many traditional manual skills are on the brink of extinction. The disappearance of cultural heritage is worldwide. Now we introduce the Steek knitting method, and hopes that as a cultural heritage and art form, knitting can cross national boundaries like music and promote cultural communication between different countries.



4. Questions and Answers

Q: I see you are cutting sleeve holes on the woven garment pieces. Aren't all the threads cut? What if it come unsewn?


A: it's the sleeve hole cut on the garment piece. There are three reasons why the line won’t come unsewn:

First, the self resistance between pure wool. It is easy to unsewn with chemical fiber or blended yarn.    


Second, not only jacquard weaving, different colors of multiple strands of wool overlap each other, but also increase the resistance between the wool.


These two reasons also explain why steek is more suitable for pure wool jacquard knitting. In consideration of its regional characteristics, steek originated in northern Europe and the United Kingdom Shetland region. The two regions are cold climate and the origin of jacquard weaving.    


Third, if you are afraid of coming unsewn, you can use a sewing machine to reinforce two circles around the area you are going to cut. You can also sew or crochet the hook by hand.


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