I taught a steeking class at Hook and Needle yesterday. I’ve been teaching my Sheepy Steeky Coasters class with a crochet-reinforced steek, no sewing machines for me. Too hard to carry to class! Also, I don’t trust a machine to not eat my knitting.
I knit an additional sample this week so I could demonstrate a couple more reinforcement methods in class. This is my Boxed Hearts Coasters that I designed for a class with the Knitting Circle during the pandemic. I knit it while watching video classes the other day; can you spot my oopsie? If not, no big deal. It was fine for class!
I added a hand sewn backstitch reinforcement for students to practice, and a felted steek. Everyone got to poke all stabby-stabby on this sample, down the center red stripe. It’s already been felted in the picture above; the front looks completely normal.
But you can see that the backside is all fuzzed up. This edge isn’t going to fall apart when it’s cut!
Completely stress free. From there, the process is the same. Pick up and knit stitches along the sides, then knit the garter stitch edge that matches the upper and lower borders. Just like a buttonband. After that, sew everything down.
I love small projects for teaching new techniques. It’s much less fraught to cut a coaster than to cut a sweater as your first steek project.
These happy scissor-wielding knitters agree!
Have you cut a steek before? It’s not scary!
PDXKnitterati 
Thank you so much! It’s on my goal list to try steeking. This sounds like a great method.
There ain’t NUTHIN you can think of to say that will make me take to the idea of steeking – it’s anathema to me !!
Never say never! Cutting up your knitting is so…freeing.
When you steek do you *always* do it in stockinette, could you do the steek stitches in ribbing so you can separate the knit stitches from purl stitches so you can see the knit stitches easier? Is that a thing?
I’ve never seen it in ribbing; it’s always stockinette which lies so nice and flat for cutting.