blocking is not for the faint hearted

Imagine a rectangle 102cm x 96cm.

Now think about 126 round-headed pins. Yes, that's right, one-hundred-and-twenty-six!

That’s how many pins I used to block my Blanket for Emily.

It’s knitted in 10ply (Aran-weight) Fiddle-De-Dee by Cleckheaton; a sadly-discontinued line of 100%cotton which is both machine-washable and machine dryable.

Because the blanket was knitted in cotton, I needed less pins than if it had been knitted in wool.

I could get away with one pin in each of those scallops because cotton doesn't have “memory” like wool does. Once stretched, it’s stretched. Wool bounces back to it’s original shape (if not stretched too far). Items knitted of wool may need blocking again after a few washes if they were not severely blocked the first time. Cotton, on the other hand, stays stretched.

As I was saying, this is a good thing.

Good because I needed less pins to block it and was therefore on my hands and knees for a lot less time than I might have been!

Good because my niece can wash and dry this many times and it should retain its shape (unless she stretches it more (by hanging by clothes pegs or some such)!

Good because this particular cotton can be dried in the machine which, in the weather we’ve been having, is almost the only way to get the washing dry!

I love the way that blocking evens out the puckering that occurs while doing entrelac in stocking stitch.

So, may I present another finish for June? A blanket for Emily (details on Ravelry). The photo was taken while the blanket was still blocking (and before the ends were sewn in) inside on a very wet winter’s day without flash because that washed-out the colour. The lights were on which, of course, gives a yellow cast to the photo. The yellow is more lemon than the photo shows but I couldn’t get the right tones by editing.

The ends have been sewn in now but you don’t need another photo, do you?

Five finishes this month! I hope I can keep this up for the rest of the year next month’s 2013: Year of the Finished Object challenge.

one skein challenge revealed

Yesterday at the monthly meeting of our chapter of the Knitters’ Guild of NSW, we had a display of items knitted for the One Skein Challenge – what can be knitted with 100g of yarn or less? Here is a detail of my knitting:
Some of you who are members of Ravelry or who read a lot of knitting blogs may recognise this as the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark (a free pattern on Ravelry). I deviated from the written pattern by not adding the nupps (a type of small bobble) in the Lily of the Valley pattern (the denser knitting towards the edges of the shawl) and by adding an extra five repeats of the Budding Lace pattern to the body of the shawl.

I knitted it Misti Alpaca – 100% baby alpaca in a hand-painted, lace-weight yarn. It's the first time I've knitted with alpaca and I was a little surprised at its fuzziness. It is very light and very soft. It’s hard to see the colour in my photos but it’s a blend of charcoal and denim-blue. The Misti Alpaca website (from where I copied this photo) says the colorway  is “Ashes”.

When I finished knitting the shawl, I was very disappointed about how small it was but I forgot to allow for the magic of blocking. It is 140cm (4ft 8in) across the top and therefore quite a nice size now!

And I still have 48g of the 100g I started with!

Can acrylic be blocked? (a tutorial of sorts)

The short answer is "yes" but not in the same way as natural fibres.

Natural fibres are generally "wet" blocked. For some people, this means spraying their finished knitting and gently stretching easing it to the correct size. For others, blocking means thoroughly wetting the item, removing some of the excess water and then pinning it and easing it to the desired size and shape.

Acrylic is designed to be washed in the machine and (sometimes) tumble dried and still retain its shape! Therefore wetting it to block it and expecting it to retain its new shape is futile. It will just think it's getting a bath and retain its original shape when dry.

Acrylic is a form of plastic. It is created and moulded into various shapes under heat. Have you ever accidentally put a plastic container near a heat source and have it melt on you? Heat will change the shape of acrylic and after it cools it will forever hold that shape.

Acrylic yarn is simply plastic fibres spun together. Heated, they can be moulded to take on new shapes (Ooo, this sentence gives me an idea). But if you bring acrylic yarn into contact with a heat source, the yarn will melt.

So, what heat source do most of us have that will not melt acrylic fibres?

Steam!

There are, of course, several ways to create steam but for me the easiest way to block acrylic is with my steam iron.

Here is my process:

1. Fill the iron with as much water as it can contain and put it on maximum heat and steam.

2. Pin your item to the size and shape you want. In my case, it was a 25cm (10 inch) square. Pin the corners first


...then the centres of each of the sides. Make sure the centre is in the middle - in this case 12.5cm (5 inches).

Press it gently with your hands to get the shape you want and ensure that it is flat.

3. Hold the iron about 2 centimetres (approximately three quarters of an inch) from the item for about 10 seconds then move the iron to another part of the item and steam there for ten seconds, etc. I hold the iron at an angle because I have discovered that a) steam is hot and it hurts and b) steam goes straight up so if I hold the iron at an angle my hand is protected!

 I go all over the item again a second time, just to be sure. For my 10 inch square that meant 10 seconds at the top (horizontally), 10 seconds across the centre (horizontally) and 10 seconds at the bottom (horizontall) followed by 10 seconds on the left then 10 second down the centre then 10 seconds on the right (one minute of steaming) - then repeat all that again (two minutes of steaming).

Do not let the iron touch the knitting - the acrylic will melt on your iron and, besides making an awful mess on your iron and ironing board cover, it smells terrible! (no, I haven't tried it but I did once burn acrylic while dyeing in the microwave - I left a metal paper clip attached!!)

4. Let the item cool before removing it from your blocking surface (I pin straight into my ironing board).

So, here is one of my pinwheel blocks - unblocked.

And here it is after blocking (notice there are no pins holding it in shape).

Does it retain its shape after blocking? Well, let's find out.

Here is the square scrunched up after blocking.
Here is the square un-scrunched.
Neat, huh?

Come back tomorrow to see what happened to these blocks next!

Lynne's Lacy Summer October 2009 - January 2010

Now when I say "lace" dear readers, do you think lightweight yarn knitted into frothy light-as-a feather confections?

What is lace knitting but a combination of increases (usually in the form of yarn-overs) and decreases? And so I bring, for your viewing pleasure and my contribution to Bells' Long Lacy Summer KAL, three baby blankets.

First there was Diamond and Smock Cover (Rav link) knitted in Spotlight 8ply cotton and destined to be used by Grandbubby the First. Don’t jump to conclusions about the colour: this was all I had to hand when I got the urge to knit a baby blanket. DD loves blue and she thinks this teal is suitable for girls and boys!

BTW, the cradle was used by SIL and his three siblings (two older) and has been lovingly restored by WM.

As a knitter I love trying new things and that “smocking” around a group of ten stitches was certainly a new technique for me – it’s very easy but very effective. Not so easy was the "purl five stitches together" – cotton is not the easiest yarn to work with when faced with directions like these; especially when the cotton is 8ply (DK).

Then, when my Ebay purchases of Fiddle-De-Dee cotton (10ply/worsted weight) arrived I started this: the Tilting Block Blanket (scroll down if you are looking for the pattern). I modified the pattern so that the tilting blocks covered the whole blanket - no stocking (stockinette) centre panel as in the original pattern.

You may remember that I have knitted this one before, for my niece whose baby was born in March 2009. This new one was to have been for DB and SIL’s daughter (due late March 2010) before I knew they were having a girl. DD was quick to claim it after the news was broken – I have so much Fiddle-De-Dee with pink in it that she thought it only right that I knit something pink for my new niece!

So, as a Christmas present for DB and SIL’s daughter (to replace the “pre-claimed” lemon blanket above and to use up some of the "pink" in my stash), I knitted "Tyler" from Fiddle-De-Dee cotton. This pattern is from Quick Knit Keepsakes Book 2 [front cover].

This was the first of the three blankets that I blocked. DD, now living half a city away from us, used to be my blocking partner. I tried to block this blanket on my own but the job is much more easily done with two people, especially when crawling around on the floor. And WM turned out to be a natural! Once he realised that one can’t just grab an edge of wet knitting and pull but must ease the knitting into its finished shape and size, he was a wiz!

So there you have it, my contributions so far to Long Lacy Summer KAL – it may not be light and frothy but it is lace knitting!

There's a hole in my shawl, dear readers...

The tennis started at 11am; Lleyton Hewitt wasn't playing till 2pm. Plenty of time to graft and block!

First the grafting - I had to do it twice; the first time I realised I had eight stitches on the front needle but 10 on the back needle; something was obviously wrong somewhere. The second time was successful and didn't look too bad.


Adam Lindsay Gordon wrote a poem which contained the line: "Life is mostly froth and bubble". I think that describes the Myrtle Leaf shawl very well. Above is the froth and below is the knitted bubble wrap! ;-)

Now the blocking. For Jocelyn, who asked about surfaces for blocking, first I lay out the cutting board, which is 190cm x 100cm [76"x40"], and cover it with a disposable white plastic table cloth. That way the cardboard stays dry but I can still see the grid underneath.
Now thread the rods through. I have never used blocking wires before even though I have had them for almost twelve months. It's a tedious process threading those burred edged rods though acres [so it seems] of lace, isn't it? Finally a bit of a stretch here and some more easing there and the shawl was approximately the size it was supposed to be [it's about 4" short but the correct width]. One good thing about the wires - a lot less pins are needed!!


So, finally, at 1.30, time to have lunch then into the lounge [living] room to check the blocking. Don't want it shrinking or tearing while drying, do we? And then I found it. I know it's hard to see ivory knitting on a white background but I'm sure you can see what I saw to my horror and dismay.
At the moment I don't know how to fix it - but I'm sure I will think of a reasonable solution in time! The wedding is still 11 days away and I'm sure it will just entail a deft hand with an embroidery needle; I'm certainly not going to undo the graft, rip out the border, frog back about 20 rows then try and pick up the stitches. Oh no, there will be some creative embroidery happening when I am calm and less hot! BTW, It got to 40*C [104*F] here again today and although the aircon is set at 24*C [75*F] it's still quite warm! And Lleyton Hewitt lost in five sets! :-(

The knitting part of Clapotis is finished!

Once the end was in sight [at the decrease rows] I couldn't put it down! I knitted twelve rows, took a break, knitted twelve rows, until I had about 35 rows to go then, with the finish line in sight, the final spurt and I was over the line!

The forecast for today is 35C [95F] so it will be perfect for blocking - if I can find my board and pins! The re-decorating continues at a frantic pace - the floor goes down on Thursday and the carpet on Friday. Half the things we own [apart from big pieces of furniture and the computer!] are stacked in boxes in the garage. And only half that junk will make it back inside!!

I'm off to do my block! LOL

Southern Summer of Socks Ready? Set? No go??

The Southern Summer of Socks KAL started on Monday 1 October. How many pairs of socks do I have on the go?

None! That's right!! She who was sock obsessed just a month ago has no socks on the needles. Why?

Three distractions:

First, there was Rugz4Kidz. The rug arrived here last Thursday. In theory I have two weeks to knit 7cm and I was considering using acrylic [to lighten the overall weight] and doing a lace pattern. Because I was still undecided, I paid her little heed. On Monday, her cries for attention could not be ignored; and somehow I knitted a stranded colour pattern in wool! I got her finished more quickly than I expected and she's impatiently waiting to strut her stuff for the camera before heading off to Donni in Wollongong.

Once Rugz was finished, Clapotis started to whimper, then started in with those long heavy sighs, and I just had to cast on! Even if it was late at night and time for bed! She wasn't giving me any rest until I completed at least section #1. On Tuesday afternoon I finished section #2. But, at bedtime, she whispered: "Just a few rows of section #3, you know you want to see what happens when you drop those stitches! It's only eight rows!"

Despite the thickness of the yarn, the weight of the wrap and the unseasonably hot weather [it's never too hot to knit remember!!] - Clapotis keeps calling, she won't leave me alone! Maybe if I took her off the lounge and hid her... LOL
Anyway, I have a deadline to get it from Penrith to Newcastle by 15 October.

Yesterday, it was the lace wrap - "block me, block me" she screamed from the lounge. I succumbed - and she looks wonderful. She's ready for a second blocking but, since she's quiet, it can wait till tomorrow.

Block more than once, I hear you ask. I'm told by a knitting guru [at the Guild] that blocking several times will teach the knitting what shape it's supposed to be so that it won't reduce to its unblocked size when the recipient washes it!

I'm off now, to cast on those socks. Online Supersocke Cotton is calling to be turned into a pair of toe up socks with short row shaped heels - challenges #1 and #2! Bring it on!!!!

Be quiet, Clapotis, or I'll put you in a cupboard!