Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of talk in the social media knitting groups regarding blocking. Ironic, seeing as I’ve been preparing a post about this very thing. When it comes to blocking, there seems to be quite a few opinions, ranging from people who never block their work, to people who only block lace work, to people who block everything and people somewhere in between.
Now I’m not going to sit here and preach to you and tell you that you should block your work, but my preference is to block everything! There was a time when I rarely blocked, but a few things have happened since to change my mind.
- I used to never block synthetics, but the industry has improved the quality of acrylic and other synthetics so much that even they show a vast difference between blocked and unblocked.
- As with synthetics, I never used to block super wash wool, but again, as above, it’s a whole new ball game now!
- I made a sweater with a honeycomb cable pattern in the upper chest part (like a Guernsey) and was horribly disappointed when I washed it the first time! It shrank to the the size of an adolescent’s sweater, and the cable pattern was all but ruined with the behavior of the wool.
- I realized how a little time making a swatch and blocking it would save me hours of work and heaps of frustration later by being better able to predict what would happen to the knitted piece after washing.
Now you don’t have to take my word for it, you can try a simple experiment yourself. Pick up a ball of yarn you have handy and cast on about 30 stitches. Knit about 24 rows in any flat stitch you like – a rib will show the results the best – but any will do. Now repeat this process again, but this time, block the second piece using any method you like. Compare the two visually and by feeling them. Which would you prefer to be wearing or to give as a gift?
Here’s a picture of a scarf I made before and after it was blocked. I’m specifically using a ribbed pattern because of a comment someone made to me recently. They said ribs shouldn’t be blocked because they’re supposed to pull in. I respectfully disagree. A rib still pulls in even after blocking, but now the edges lay flat and the piece looks altogether better (IMHO).
Next post will be on one method of blocking to give the results shown above.
Hugzzz 😎
