Have you picked your project from the first quarter “New to You” knit-a-long yet? At first, I had a hard time thinking of a technique I hadn’t at least tried, but then I remembered **steeking**. I always say there’s nothing to be scared of about knitting, it’s only yarn after all, but steeking? Steeking scares me a little bit. It wouldn’t be quite so bad were it not for the fact that most steeked projects are elaborate colorwork projects worked at a fine gauge and if that goes awry, well, you could have just destroyed months of lovely knitting. There would be tears.

So, I’m doing it – steeking. (Go Team Fiber Monkeys!) Turns out, there are a lot of incredible steeking projects that aren’t quite as elaborate lest things take a bad turn, and I had a hard time deciding! If you’re thinking of steeks, maybe you can use some of my research.

The Aesa Pullover is kind of amazing. I want to make it; I maybe even want to make a cardigan-ized version, but I’m not sure I can pull this off in 3 months, and I’m not sure what yarn I’d want to use. I’m thinking this might be my second (or third) steeking project, but it’s in my queue for sure.

On the other end of the spectrum is Tess – a completely reasonable project for three months, but still a lovely stranded little project. And it calls for one of my favorite yarns (Shibui Staccato). And I do kind of need a new pair of slipper socks.

I briefly considered the Baby Snowflakes blanket, but figured by the time it is done, it will be warm out and my baby will no longer be much of a baby so another one is saved for later. I was encouraged that this one called for Cephalopod’s Skinny Bugga, however – since you read so many people saying you absolutely can’t steek with a superwash yarn, clearly, you can! But I think you probably have to be a lot more careful about reinforcing things.

Angry Sheep Cardigan! Does this even need an explanation? I alllllllmost picked this one.

But then I found this one, and Levi needs a Pod of Cetaceans for sure. I’m knitting mine in Yarn Love’s (non-superwash!) Anne Shirley in Storm, Steel Blue, Whisper, and Arabian Nights. I decided to go for gold and knit the sleeves two-at-a-time, bringing two new techniques to one adorable project!

What’s your “New to You” project going to be?