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Lace Isn’t Done Until You Block It

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blocking laceLast week I went to a big blogging conference, and I decided that I wanted to be the person who was always wearing a hand knit scarf or shawl. I also happened to be knitting a little lace scarf, so I decided I would try to finish it in time to wear it at the conference.

Well, I got it done. On Wednesday night before leaving town Thursday morning. There wasn’t really time to block it, because it wouldn’t have time to dry thoroughly, but it did look pretty sad, as fresh off the needles lace usually does, so I gave it a quick bath, stretched it by hand and laid it out to dry as much as it could before I grabbed it and hit the road.

Honestly, as you can see above, it still looked pretty sad.

Now that I’m home again I can block it properly, and while I’m thinking on it I thought I’d direct you to my tips on blocking lace over at About, as well as my knitting buddy Eileen’s instructions for blocking a circular lace shawl, should be the type who knits such a thing.

Do you always block things that need to be blocked before you wear them, or are you a little more casual like me? I’d love to hear your thoughts. And I’ll be blocking that scarf for real soon, I promise!

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Comments

  1. I don’t knit, but I always block my crochet work unless it is made with nylon thread/cord. To each their own I suppose, but my work just isn’t finished until it’s blocked. I suspect that’s why I win a LOT of awards.

  2. Hi Sarah, I think you have to consider blocking a piece on a case by case basis. I’ve posted an article about blocking on my blog at: http://purl3agony.hubpages.com/hub/Knitting-Hints-A-Beginners-Simple-Guide-to-Blocking

    I make the (perhaps) controversial statement that not all knitted garments need to be blocked. I would agree that lace usually benefits from blocking, but sometimes you can lose the dimension of textured stitches with blocking (like some cables) and may be better off NOT blocking a knitted piece, or just blocking certain areas. You really need to think carefully about what is best for each piece and how you want your finished project to look!

Have you read?

Embellish Your Knit Dishcloth with Flowers

One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift. 

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style. 

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills. 

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather. 

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do. 

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall. 

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills. 

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Book Review – Dishcloths for Special Days [Knitting]

Book Review – Holiday Knit Dishcloths