Blocking This Baby

What It Means and What the Project Means to Me

If you have been following along with the blog, you’ve seen a few posts about how I have been knitting my wedding shawl. How this has been happening at home and while traveling. Whelp, after many months, a few trips overseas and a lot knitting, I’ve finally finished working on the project! And in time for my wedding in April! Hallelujah! So now what does one do but Block It, right?

What is Blocking and Would You Do It?

Blocking is a knitting technique that is meant to help your knitted projects keep their shape.  It’s often a very simple process, yet it can take a bit of time to do.  Blocking refers to the act of soaking or washing a knitted item, and then laying and/or pinning it flat to dry.

Sometimes a project, though it’s completed, and knitted correctly, will not have the right shape, take a beret style hat for instance.  Other times, the method of construction has lead to some of the edges curling.  Or maybe it’s a lace project that needs stretched out to achieve it’s true shape and size.  Blocking can help to solve all of these issues.

What do you need for blocking?

Step One: Soaking, Washing or Wetting your Knitted Item.

Depending on the delicacy of the project you can block a few different ways.  For acrylic and/or bulkier knitted items that won’t shrink up or fall apart in the wash, I actually put them in the wash with some gentle detergent on a gentle cycle.  So sometimes a washing machine can be used.

Other times, you’ll want to soak your garment, so a clean tub, bucket, or sink will be needed.  Often times an additive is used to help clean or protect the knitted work.  You can find these online or at your local yarn shop.

Still other times, like in the case of my fragile, silk wedding shawl, I’ve just held it under water, rinsed it out and then laid it out to block. So just water was needed in this case.

Step Two: Drying or blocking said knitted item.

My go to, and absolutely favorite method of drying an item (which is where the term blocking actually applies) is a foam mat that pieces together.  They work much like the children’s play mats you can get at almost any big box store.  Sometimes you can snag them at Aldi’s.  My mats were a gift and purchased from KnitPicks.

I’ve talked with other knitters, and some prefer to use what they have on hand, such as a bed, a towel or some other absorbent surface that can get wet.

In the case of my lace shawl, I’ve also used pins, to ensure that the shawl keeps it shape as it dries.  Anything from push pins, to object to weight it down, to actual blocking pins will work.  I use these, also from Knit Picks.

As I stated before – this is always dependent on the specific project you that you are working on, the type of yarn or fiber used, etc.  The experts at your local yarn store can help determine what the best method is for your current WIP (work in Progress).