Blocking.

It's August today. The year continues to fly by!

The weather has been mostly sunny this week,

although we have been promised a change, in the next few days.

Mr C. gave me this beautiful red rose, from the garden.

The smell, when I open my work room door,

is absolutely heavenly!

Can you see, Ronnie Raccoon, pepping out?

He's been tidying up my small carrier bags, or untidying!!!

Anyway I digress, this week's post is all about 'blocking'.

Yes, my Shetland shawl, is finally off the needles.

The last process, in it's journey, is sewing the seams

and stretching it into it's final shape.

Thought you might be interested in how I did it.

Blocking, involves pinning out the finished garment, either

wet or dry, onto a flat surface, to the correct measurement.

This gives the finished garment a professional appearance.

Tools

Blocking pins (I got mine online, from Loop, in London)

and tap water, in an old window cleaner bottle.

Started off, blocking the centre portion.

Folded up a very large quilt to put underneath. You could use foam,

cork board or polystyrene sheet but this is what I had to hand.

Pinned the centre to the blanket, pulling it in to it's full extent,

to avoid puckering.The knitted shawl is very delicate, 

so had to be very careful to ease it gently, to avoid damaging the threads.

Sprayed the whole area with water and left to dry, naturally.

Then had the dilemma of what surface I had, that was large enough

to accomodate the whole shawl.

Had the sudden idea that I could use my large rag rug frame.

Attached threads along one edge of the shawl

and tied them to the rug frame to the approx shape.

Repeated this process, along the opposite edge.

Then sprayed the whole thing with water.

Left it overnight and will take it down, when I have 

finished this post.

Very pleased with the final result. 

 I have changed the design of the centre. The pattern

showed it all one colour. Didn't have enough wool

to do that, as it was not bought specially for this project

 and was reluctant to purchase any more.

So 'necessity being the mother of invention', I

designed my own. I am very pleased with how it's turned out.

Looks a bit Art Deco, I thought.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm off to release a shawl!