Blocking Lace

What happened here?










Some knitters say they hate to block. I’ve even heard a few say they refuse to block, limiting themselves to patterns and yarns that don’t require blocking. Not me! I love to block because I love what it does for my knitting. I am not as good a knitter as I would like to be. My stitches are not perfectly even. My edges are not perfectly straight. This is particularly true of lace. The intricate stitches don’t lie flat and neat, the pattern is lost is a rumple of yarn that looks nothing like I intended. Blocking turns that unruly pile of yarn into beautiful knitted lace right before my eyes.

As soon as I bound off the last stitch of Swallowtail #2 I set out immediately to get it blocked. I am a fan of wet blocking. I want every bit of fiber thoroughly saturated with water to insure the blocking can work its magic. I soaked the shawl in lukewarm water in the bathroom sink with a little bit of shampoo and rinsed it with a little bit of conditioner. It is hair! After about half an hour, I drained the sink and squeezed out the excess water, first by pushing the shawl against the side of the sink and then rolling it in a big towel and squeezing the towel.

The magic comes when the shawl is laid out on the blocking boards. This time I had new soft linking mats purchased at Lowe’s. These are 24 inch square plastic mats that fit together like a jig saw puzzle, sold as a play surface in the flooring department. They come four to a package. I bought two packages and fit 5 squares together in a triangle shape on my cutting table. One side of the mats has a gridded surface. I put this side up and the grids seemed to grab and hold the damp shawl in place as I worked. Pins went easily into the pads and, because of the grip, fewer were necessary. In short order Swallowtail #2 was drying, pinned tightly on the pads.

And that’s when I saw this conspicuous hole, impossible to ignore against the playroom yellow of the blocking mat! It looks as if I tried to pick up a dropped yarnover several rows later and somehow ended up with the right number of stitches without getting all the stitches in their proper places.

But I know the shawl won’t be stretched out like this again until I have to wash it some day. And blocking had done for the shawl what I hoped it would, revealed the beauty of the pattern, evened out my stitches and gave the shawl a beautiful drape. The hole will disappear into gentle folds falling over my shoulders. I’ve decided not to see it!