"The New Stranded Colorwork" or, how to overcome your steek phobia
Interview by Mary Mooney, The Oregonian
Oregon's own Mary Scott Huff of Fairview recently published her first book, The New Stranded Colorwork. I got a sneak peek and was blown away by her inventive designs. Folks, if you've ever dreamed about steeking -- or had nightmares about what could happen if you attempted it and things went wrong -- this is the book for you. The steek section is titled "Steeks Are Our Friends," and it gives a non-scary, deeply soothing explanation of the process, wrapping up with the wise words, "Once you've hacked open a sweater, you can do anything." (It's kinda like having a birth coach, only minus the blood and the yelling.) If anything was going to encourage me to steek, it would be this.
Mary's designs are an interesting, creative mix that'll tempt the daring and dazzle the rest of us. Her Wedding Belle jacket has to be one of the most amazing knitted garments I've ever seen. She's also got sweaters for kiddos and grownups, a really cute hat, a sweet bag, a pair of legwarmers worked together in one piece (you knit one big tube, then cut 'em apart and seam each one), and a bunch of vests.
How long have you been knitting?
I learned to knit at about age 10, when I mostly did it balanced on the limbs of the trees I used to climb. I stopped knitting around the same time I quit climbing trees. Can't remember exactly why; could be that I got interested in boys…weak bit of judgment, that. I didn't pick it up again until I was pregnant with my first child. Rather than food cravings, I got tactile ones. All of a sudden I was desperate to touch velvet, or leather, or wool. The wool cravings have yet to subside.
What inspired you to write a book exclusively about stranded knitting?
I decided to write about stranded colorwork when I realized that most of the information available to people trying it for the first time was out of date, out of print, out of style, or all three. I tried and tried to find one volume with all the good stuff in one place, and when I failed to find it, I realized it was mine to write. Also, I suffer from a deplorable excess of creative energy.
What do you like best about stranded knitting?
That once you understand some basic ideas about the techniques, the sky's the limit on what you can make and do.
The Wedding Belle jacket. Check out those cuffs! And the stranded knitting! And the clasps! And the binding!What's the single toughest thing about designing to show off colorwork?
For me, it's keeping the color palette limited enough that recreating a design is feasible for other knitters. I'd love to do a piece using 18 colors, but I have to remember that doing so is asking my knitters to buy more than 18 skeins of yarn, which is just not realistic for most of us. One way around this problem is to work with yarn makers to create kits, which is something I want to do more of.
What to you tell people to help them get over their fear of steeking?
You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. I was terrified to try it myself, the first time. Once I understood how different circular construction with steeks is from flat construction with seams, a whole new world of possibilities opened up for me. That's the part that I'm really excited to share with knitters. This ancient technique is the greatest thing to help us make truly modern knitting!
Your book has a number of interesting construction techniques. For instance, you've got a pair of legwarmers knit in one piece, then cut apart and seamed. What's the advantage of doing that compared to knitting each one separately in the round?
That particular project is to allow knitters to try out the technique of working two sleeves together, without the need to create a whole sweater. In certain circumstances, it can be much easier to knit two sleeves simultaneously than one at a time, such as when the sleeves have a lot of color changes (totally eliminates the weaving-in of ends), or when the sleeves are small and you don't like using double-pointed needles (two baby sleeves can be worked at the same time on a 16" circular).
Ever had any major knitting disasters?
Yep. At least one, every day. Sometimes before breakfast. After finishing the body tube for "Wedding Belle" in the book, I was operating under a combination of exhaustion, dyslexia,
Mary Scott Huff says anyone can steek. After reading her explanation of how to do it, I believe her. She also, as you can see, thinks we should all have fun with our knitting.and excitement that made cutting the neckline curve that night an inappropriate idea. I understood this only after cutting a perfect 2" neckline curve out of the left shoulder of the poor thing. I was so upset, my family was hiding under the furniture.
After I recovered (there is no crying in knitting, by the way. Swearing, yes, but no crying), I learned all about re-knitting an area which has been removed by scissors. That lesson is not in my book, but if that ever happens to you, send me an e-mail for immediate support. I also set fire to some handspun yarn one time in the microwave, but that's another story.
What's your all-time favorite knitting project?
The one I'm currently working on. I also love most whichever of my children is asking me, and whichever shoes I have on.
Are you a one-at-a-time knitter, or do you have several things going at once?
Generally I'm a one-at-a-time person, but only when I am on strict deadline. If I don't have an external influence governing me, I fall prey to my natural proclivity for having more than one thing going at a time. I'm actually in that mode right now, and I need some cosmic supervisor to straighten me out and make me complete a few things. I recently asked my blog (www.maryscotthuff.com) to vote on which of my UFO's I should work on next, by way of introducing some artificial accountability. Now all I have to do is get them to call me and nag.
What's on your needles now?
My most exciting project is a cardigan jacket called "Frog Prince". Colorwork. Natch. It'll be available soon.
Do you have a tip to share with readers?
Yes: Keep stretching into new areas in your knitting. Challenge yourself to master something you have been told (even by yourself) that you can't do. You can, and will, do the things you want most to do. Patience, skill and cleverness have nothing to do with it: Only tenacity and practice matter in learning to do what you want to do. And also, don't put handspun yarn in the microwave.