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Finishing Workshop: How to Block Lace

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lace blocking wiresYesterday we talked in general about how and why to block knitting projects, but there’s one case in which blocking is not optional, and that’s with lace knitting.

If you’ve knit lace before you may remember your first lace project and how it looked rather like wadded up tissue paper when you were done knitting it.

Lace straight off the needles is rarely pretty. But there’s an easy cure: blocking.

In this case, I would wet block unless your project is too fragile for that. A blocking board is great because you’re going to need lots and lots of pins. (Or blocking wires; they’re totally worth it if you knit a lot of lace.)

As you pin down the project you really need to stretch and straighten it to get those eyelets opened. This is what makes all your hard work visible, so don’t skimp. Take your time and try to enjoy it as the last step you have to do before you get to enjoy your beautiful new lace thing.

And if you want to see the real magic that blocking lace can do, check out this tutorial on blocking a circular lace shawl. The blocking itself is a labor of love, but it’s absolutely crucial to have a project you’ll be happy with.

Any lace knitters out there want to share blocking stories? Or are there some lace projects lurking in your UFOs because you don’t know how or don’t want to block them? I’d love to hear about it.

Comments

  1. I made a lace shawl out of premium (read: pricey and beautiful) mohair silk with sequins that I confess I didn’t test swatch prior to starting the project. When I finished it, it was as a prune is to a plum, and I presumed this was the price I paid for not having swatched before. Alas, it is still sitting at the bottom of a bag of scrap yarn. I’ve only just bought my first set of blocking wires, so I think it’s time to rescue that shawl!

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.