![]() When doing lace work, its essential to block your finished project to really bring out the pattern and show off your hard work. In this tutorial, I will show you how I block all my lace knitting/crocheting and prove to you that blocking isn't scary and show you what a huge difference it makes. I crocheted the Mia's Lace Collar from Piecework May/June 2013 using Malibrigo Sock in the Lettuce colourway. The project is semi-circular and has a very nice granny-style main section with a beautiful picot border. I wanted to block this project to accentuate the picot points and make the shawl larger. I gathered my materials: Blocking wires, pins, salad spinner, blocking mat, and a wool wash. ![]() Before blocking my shawl measured 42" X16" you can see that it needs to be opened up in the middle. Doesn't look like much does it? I also should mention that I don't weave in my ends until after blocking. Since I am going to be stretching out the shawl, I find that if I weave in my ends beforehand, they kinda get pulled out a bit so if I wait until afterwards I can weave them in and hide the ends better.
![]() I let my items soak for about 15-20 mins. This lets the water and wool wash work its way through the fibres softening and opening them up. Remember not to add too much soap, a little goes a long way. ![]() When the time is up, bring out your shawl and put it in the salad spinner. This tool saves time and energy :) Spin all the excess water out of your shawl. You don't want to wring out your lace, this could cause a bit of felting and won't get out as much water as the salad spinner will. You can also roll up your project in a towel to remove water but again, the salad spinner is faster. You may find that the yarn colour will bleed a little, this is ok and it is also another good reason to block these types of projects before wearing. Now we are ready to block!
Once I have the top centered and stretched to as large as I wanted, I worked my way down each side pinning out each picot point. I made sure the centre spine of my shawl was centered and stretched down as far as I could. Once your shawl is pinned, you can adjust as you need, blocking harder or evening the points out. If you are using blocking wires this becomes very easy. ![]() Once you have everything pinned, leave your shawl to dry completely. This ensures it holds its blocked shape. After blocking my shawl measures 60" X 22" and as you can see, its shape is much more pronounced than it was originally. Here are some other lace shawls I have made and blocked using wires and pins. You can also see how I used wires to my benefit depending on the shape of the shawl. I hope you found this tutorial useful. Let me know if you have any tips or tricks when blocking and I'd also love to see your blocked projects :)
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