Blocking Knit Lace

I have either been "down" this week or on a roll. I will share the "on a roll" accomplishments over the next couple of days.

Today I will share the process of blocking a shawl. I finished knitting "Miralda's Triangular Shawl" from "Knitted Lace of Estonia" by Nancy Bush. It was a complex pattern that kept me awake, but yet was not beyond my skill set. I chose the yarn, Longad by Evilla, because of the long runs of color. While the color gave just the effect I wanted the yarn was full of debris that I removed both while winding the ball, and during the knitting process itself. Also despite a lot of fabric softener the yarn retained its rough texture and would not be good for use next to bare flesh.

It is not always easy to take a picture of the finished product while wearing it, but I gave it a stab. (You can see parts of my bathroom as an added bonus.)

Knitted lace just off the needles looks like a nest of yarn at best. The finished piece must be blocked to come into its full glory. Blocking involves getting the piece wet, then stretching it into the desired shape and securing it with pins until it dries.

I block on rubber mats that I put down on my living room floor. However being on the floor is a signal to the Boys that I want to play. I am offered toys to throw.

Being a good Doggy Mommy I do play a couple of games of "Throw The Green Monster Stuffed Critter", but that comes to an end. Then Roul goes into one of his many beds and pouts,

and Blizzard is torn between taking a nap, and watching me crawl around on my hands and knees.

When the piece is stretched on the blocking boards it looks like this. At this point you can either see your perfect project, or the errors that you didn't catch. My philosophy about that is "If it looks good for the distance of 3 feet; don't worry about it."

When it is dry the pins are removed, and I rush to take pictures while the project is relatively dog fur free.

Now I just wait for the weather to go below the high 90's.