Knitting

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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?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.