Blocking and Ta Da!

Regular readers of my blog may well remember my recent post about test knitting / crocheting (here) where I first showed you this shawl that I was making:

© Christina Loman, 2013

You may also remember that it was meant to be finished by 17th March but that I was unable to do this. Well this week I did finish it  🙂 Before the final ta da however it needed blocking.

So What is Blocking?

Blocking, like gauge swatching is sometimes seen as another bothersome extra to knitting or crochet – ‘It is finished so can’t I wear it?’. I, however am a fan of blocking. I love the stitch definition that it gives to my ‘works of art’ that I have worked so hard to achieve. This shawl shows this more than ever.

1. This is what I started with:

2. The next step is to wet it in some way – because I really wanted to stretch this to the max I soaked this in a bowl:

It looks like a gooey mess!

3.

The next step is to get rid of the excess water by rolling it in a towel.

4.  Now for the stretching. I normally pin the items out onto rubber ‘play’ mats but this apparently called for something a whole lot different:

The tools needed to block this shawl!

(Thanks to the superb notsogranny who lent this to me!)

The wires are to feed into the edges of the shawl and the pins are to pin it into place. The ruler is so that you can measure a piece out to the specific measurements if so required.

Here it is with the rods in. I have to confess that I wasn’t quite sure how to use the pins effectively (please don’t laugh).

5. Wait 24 hours for it to dry!

6. Un-pin it and wear with pride 🙂

See not that hard really. If you want more info have a look at the Vogue page here.  I figured they ought to know what they are talking about!!

I am hoping that you can tell the difference between this:

                 and this:

This shawl also shows another important thing to remember when we are buying yarn. Make sure the dye lot is the same for each skein. Can you see the stripe? I bought this yarn on-line, at the same time and assumed that they would check the dye lots. I didn’t. Never assume anything as these clearly are different! I just hope that it doesn’t show when I am wearing it too much!

Pattern Details

Yarn: EllaRae Lace merino (should have been three balls but, being a test knit I only got two instead of checking with Christina. Sorry but at least she was able to rectify this.) This yarn is lovely to work with.

Needles: US 4 or 3.5mm circular needles.

Special Notes: It uses a picot cast on and cast off that is new to me but which gave the edges a really pretty effect. It comes in  written and chart form and is a repeating pattern over 32 rows. I enjoyed knitting this as it was interesting without being over complicated.

Should you wish to purchase this pattern then you can here. Also pop over to the designers blog here to see what it should look like and what the actual designer has to say about it.

As always on a Sunday / Monday I am linking up with Handmade Monday. Do pop over and see what everyone else has been up to this week 🙂