Long Weekend Blocking

Monday was a public holiday here and it also ended up being a holiday from Making Mondays of sorts this week – not that I’m not busy making things of course! And I have been having internet ‘issues’ – how did I ever survive without it ;)

I spent part of the weekend blocking two blankets that my mother in law made for a custom order. The blankets turned out so beautifully – I’m sure that I spent much longer than I needed to blocking just because I kept stopping to stare at the different colour combinations and the amazing work she's done.  The colours reminded me of beautiful bright flowers in a lush field or garden bed.   More photos of the finished blankets coming soon :)

The long weekend also meant I had a little extra time to myself, which was lovely, I even had time to just take photos of a few things around the house that grabbed my eye.

 

Back to blocking.  Do you block your knitting or crochet projects? I discovered blocking a little while back and now I always do it.  It makes whatever the item is in to the shape it is meant to be, relaxes the curling that you get in some pieces and generally makes whatever it is hang beautifully. For the uninitiated Alicia Paulson’s lovely and straight forward instructions are here. The way I block is largely the same, except instead of spraying water I put my iron on the highest setting, with the most steam. Then I hold the iron a centimeter or so above the piece (being careful not to touch it at all) and steam away! Then, like Alicia, I leave the piece to dry –usually over night.

For smaller pieces I just pin them to the ironing board, but for larger blankets, pinning to a mattress seems to be the best way. If the item is something that needs to be sewn together, then I would always block before sewing the pieces together.

V
xx