Knitting

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How to Make Your Own Blocking Board

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How to make your own blocking board.Blocking knitting projects when they’re finished isn’t always essential, but sometimes it is (lace) and sometimes it just helps to make things look a little nicer or to get two pieces of knitting that ought to be the same size to actually be the same size (say, the front and back of a sweater).

I have a purchased blocking board, which is great, but it’s heavy, and they can be expensive.

This alternative from Jessica Joy is quick, easy and cheap to put together yourself with foam board and gingham, which is used not so much as a measuring tool but to allow you to line up edges on the straight lines of the fabric.

She notes in her tutorial that the foam board curled up at the edges because it doesn’t really like to be wet, but this is still a great in a pinch option for blocking, particularly if you need a really big space, because foam board is pretty inexpensive.

Have you ever made a DIY blocking board? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Jessica Joy.]

Comments

  2. I bought the thick pink insulation foam board at HomeDepot/Lowes. Covered with gingham and stapled to the back of the boards. So that it wouldn’t be to big to fit under a bed, I did a kind of dovetail hinge where the two boards met so that the whole thing could be folded in half. Cheap, store-able and still working years later.

Have you read?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.