I’ve finally finished my baby cardigan - just in time as baby is expected any day now!! But it absoutely needs to be blocked as there is a pucker or two along the button band, the bottom and the button bands are rolling and the seaming at one of the arms needs to be smoothed out. (I hope blocking will cure those things!) Anywho, I’m terrified of blocking it! The directions I read are from Stitch and Bitch - is there a better resource??
When I was about to block my first afghan (not too long ago) I found this article from Knitty. It really explains everything well.
sheep are mammals.
like all mammals, they have hair.
their hair has special properties, and is called wool
how to block:
do it like you’d wash a small childs hair.
warm (not cold, not hot, but body temp) water
Do not muss up or tangle… just gently get wet, and a little sudsy
rince well, gently squeese out excess water.
wrap in towel to remove more water (squeeze towel too!)
(do not wring, mangle or over work!)
when the wool is wet, but not drippy (heavy damp)
make it smooth. (use your hand to gently smooth it out flat) on an absorbent surface (an other towel!)
gentle shape–into the shape you want (think “setting hair!”) let dry.
sweater will keep this ‘shape’ (just as 'set hair" keeps curl) till it needs to be washed again.
Wool is just hair (fine hair, spun hair!) but hair.
treat it like baby fine hair (gentle soap/shampoo, gentle handling) and it will be fine.
It’s not ‘fragile’ it just needs to be treated right… and blocking is like a wash and set for the hair!
of troy’s advice works if it’s got some wool in it. If yours is made out of acrylic it won’t block, but you can wash and dry it. If you like, you can dry flat rather than in the dryer and shape it.