Kiss My Knits!

Blocking

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I had hoped to begin blocking Tyrathia’s scarf last night, but realized I still had some prep work to do.

I got some cheap Elmer’s foam board at Michael’s and proceeded to mark off 1 inch squares so that I’d be able to pin the scarf in a straight line. Lines were made in pencil, as I decided that of the materials I had on-hand, that had the least chance of rubbing off onto the finished garment. The upcoming rinse would prove that I didn’t need to get so hung up on the trueness of the color. More on that in a bit.


Then, because I couldn’t find blocking wires at any nearby stores, and didn’t want my blocking pins making little points along the garment edge, I ran a cotton string through the edges of the scarf. Sadly, I did not have the foresight to run one along the cast-on and cast-off edges, and so had to pin the top and bottom edges about every 1/4 inch so that the pins wouldn’t leave little peaks. Fortunately – and I really feel good about this and want to stress it to anyone else doing this – I did have the foresight to run the string through BEFORE rinsing the scarf. It would have been so much harder to do this while the scarf was wet, I think.

So, it’s into the sink for a rinse, because there’s still a little stiffness in one spot due to milk I spilled on it during knitting. Oops. I had rinsed it once after that and there’d been some bleeding, so I also wanted to be sure there wouldn’t be any extra dye loss if Tyrathia needed to handwash it. Good concern.

These are shots of the individual cool-water rinses I did. A little soap was included in rinse 2.

After five rinses I gave up on seeing clear water. Tyrathia, don’t wash this with anything else.

Then to the blocking board! I stretched this baby within an inch of its life. CD for scale below so you can see size difference between blocked and unblocked.

I added extra pins in the places that seemed to have significant bowing. I think having the string there will help the tension be distributed more evenly and decrease the “pointiness” of the edges.

It’s blocking on the dining room table, which doubles as a workspace for my husband’s electronics and beer brewing. I’ve removed all the chairs from around the table so that the cat won’t jump up and sleep on it.

So I go into my meeting in 15 minutes with the confidence and odd combination of excitement and peacefulness that comes from successfully tackling a new technique. As for the scarf, all that’s left is to wait for it to dry, and see what happens!

Comments

8 responses to “Blocking”

  1. angel_fly Avatar
    angel_fly

    I’m sitting here in awe I’m so amazingly impressed. Holy cow, that’s some serious work and it looks so pretty!

  2. angel_fly Avatar
    angel_fly

    I’m sitting here in awe I’m so amazingly impressed. Holy cow, that’s some serious work and it looks so pretty!

  3. scaredkat Avatar
    scaredkat

    Have you considered charging extra for the blocking? Sounds like an extraordinary amount of work, and exactly the sort of lengths you’d go to to turn out an extraordinary product.

  4. scaredkat Avatar
    scaredkat

    Have you considered charging extra for the blocking? Sounds like an extraordinary amount of work, and exactly the sort of lengths you’d go to to turn out an extraordinary product.

  5. tvini Avatar
    tvini

    If I were doing it for a stranger, I’d definitely consider charging a lot for a lace scarf. However, I told Tyrathia that sure, I’d be glad to do it for her more than two years ago. Fortunately, she’s paid me in patterns and yarn for this particular scarf, as opposed to large wads of cash, or I’d be feeling terribly guilty. So it’s not a paid commission, it’s a favor for a friend. 🙂

    I promised her I’d do this back before http://www.wearwithstyle.com took off, when I had the luxury of knitting for myself without having to squeeze it in between paid orders.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to do it, and have enjoyed learning new things from the project. I’m also happy that this’ll be an unfinished object to cross off my list. I felt pretty embarassed at SimuCon this year to tell her, “oh, look! Your scarf is… uh… half done!” We had been joking that maybe I could deliver it at SimuCon 2020.

    So yes, you’re right. I’m glad to do many, many things for the people in my life with no compensation. But a stranger would have to pay out the wazoo.

  6. tvini Avatar
    tvini

    If I were doing it for a stranger, I’d definitely consider charging a lot for a lace scarf. However, I told Tyrathia that sure, I’d be glad to do it for her more than two years ago. Fortunately, she’s paid me in patterns and yarn for this particular scarf, as opposed to large wads of cash, or I’d be feeling terribly guilty. So it’s not a paid commission, it’s a favor for a friend. 🙂

    I promised her I’d do this back before http://www.wearwithstyle.com took off, when I had the luxury of knitting for myself without having to squeeze it in between paid orders.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to do it, and have enjoyed learning new things from the project. I’m also happy that this’ll be an unfinished object to cross off my list. I felt pretty embarassed at SimuCon this year to tell her, “oh, look! Your scarf is… uh… half done!” We had been joking that maybe I could deliver it at SimuCon 2020.

    So yes, you’re right. I’m glad to do many, many things for the people in my life with no compensation. But a stranger would have to pay out the wazoo.

  7. houseofdanie Avatar
    houseofdanie

    That is one cool set of photos. Love the last one!

    -D

  8. houseofdanie Avatar
    houseofdanie

    That is one cool set of photos. Love the last one!

    -D

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