Friday, June 3, 2011

Blocking the Final Step to Finishing your Project

Blocking your knit or crochet project is the final step in finishing your garment and should not be over looked. First-time blockers are always amazed by the difference blocking makes to the final
appearance of their knitting. After blocking, sweater parts lay flat, stitches even out, and projects have a more professional look.

I used to block my projects either on a spare bed or on the floor. In order to block, your knitting has to be wet or steamed (I use a Jiffy Steamer) and pinned to the correct shape and measurements so there is drying time involved. For the most part this was very inconvenient and if I used the carpet I had to close the door to the room so the dogs didn’t walk on, or worse lay down, on my wet knitting.

I looked for a long time to find a blocking board that would work for me. Most boards that I found folded but were large, expensive, and storage was awkward. A blocking board needs to be large enough to block a long shawl, an afghan or a large sweater so getting something too small made no sense..

Last January at TNNA I finally found what I was looking for. The Knitters Block by Coco Knit is (9) 12 inch blocks that look like large puzzle pieces and they fit together in any configuration that you need for the particular project you are going to block. Unfortunately the production was slow so it took a while before I got my first order and like everything that I sell I wanted to test it out for myself to be certain that I really liked it before adding it to the website. I have now used it on several different types of knitted articles and I have been more than pleased with how nice it is to work on. It is almost half the price of other boards that I found, it stores in its own reusable tote bag and it is very light weight. I particularly like that I am able to make it long enough to block my shawls, and, because this is completely water proof i am able to set this up right on my dining room table and not worry that the table will be ruined