This may sound silly but I am scared to block :oops: . I spent all this time knitting my fabulous Mmmmmmalabrigo scarf and now I need to block it. It is a wavy rib pattern so it definitely needs it. I think the problem is I have never blocked anything before. I read the article on knitty about blocking. Do I really just duck the sucker in water and pin it down?? Seems so easy yet scary!
I guess I am just looking for some reassurance that I’m not going to wreck my beautiful creation.
Thanks!
Another thing you can do is pin it to the size that you want, then spritz it thorougly with a water bottle or lay a damp towel over it. I’ve done it this way with good results. I’m always a bit anxious to just dunk something into a bunch of water for fear that it will stretch the thing out.
I was just going to make a post on Blocking when I saw this. I hope no one minds me posting my question here.
I blocked a scarf of mine… It was done in stockinette, so it was curly. I wet it, then pinned it up…and. That’s it. It was fine for a few hours, but now its curlier than ever.
What did I miss? =\
What kind of yarn did you use?
It is the nature of stockinette to curl. The only thing you could do at this point to prevent it is to pick up stitches around the edges and knit a border. The border needs to be in garter, seed or moss stitch. Those stitches will not curl. In the future, plan on knitting a border while you are knitting the scarf. That is easier. How wide the border needs to be depends on what weight yarn you are using. The heavier the yarn the wider the border needs to be to prevent the scarf from curling.
I just attended a knitting class last week on Blocking at my local knitting store. I have tried damp cloth blocking and spray bottle blocking before with poor results so when this class was advertised as “it will change your mind about blocking,” I felt challenged and very skeptical!
It was, by far, the best knitting class I have ever attended!
We learned to block using the steam method. We blocked a piece of knitting using 3" T-pins on a large piece of foam (bigger than a couch cushion) covered by gingham fabric. Using the steam from your iron, you “hovercraft” (literally holding the bottom of your iron’s steam holes fractions of an inch above the knitted work) over the outer edges of your garment first, before moving to the middle of your garment, and steaming it. The idea is that the steam will “soak” your yarn, but the heat of the steam dries quickly. You let the garment dry and cool before you steam block it for a second and last time.
It was beautiful watching the yarn relax under the steam, and although it was a little nerve-wrecking to practice this method in front of others in the class on someone else’s beautiful work (!!), it was amazing to see the results before me.
After trying unsuccessfully to block in the past, I am now convinced to use this method in the future (starting this week!) Apparently it will work on a scarf knit in st st, although the very nature of st st to curl will probably reoccur after washing it.
Hope this helps, and if I have been unclear in any way, please feel welcome to ask me more details.
Evelynne
I blocked my Malabrigo sweater by pinning it out and using an iron to steam it you wet a pillow case and wring it out so it is damp and put it on top of your scarf then with your iron on the wool setting with steam press it gently on top of the pillow case repeat this process untill the pillow case is dry then let it cool while it is still pinned out.