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

My Finished Shawl

I finished my shawl and blocked it in time to wear it this Memorial Day weekend.
As I look at the color changes for some reason with the color yarn I picked I
see Watermelon. Maybe it is because the red coloring at the very top changing
into the yellow and green reminds me of the fruit and the rind. Or possibly it
is because it is the end of May and we are still not having really warm weather
here in southern California and I just want to imagine warm days and out door
barbeques. http://www.patchworkfrog.com/images/rainbowshawllg.jpg

My summer Shawl

I guess both the advantage and disadvantage of having a knitting business when you are as addicted to yarn and knitting supplies as I am is to try to learn to control your addiction and not see everything that arrives (for sale) as something I should pull and knit myself.

Having said that when my order of Poems Yarn arrived I just sat looking at the yarn. The colors were just calling to me to make something. I couldn’t decide which yarn to pick, should I choose the Poem silk or the Poem sock? A real dilemma. My next question is what do I want to make.

With the odd weather we have ben having here in California I started thinking that what I would love to have are some shawlettes. Not big warm things that are heavy but some really nice lacy and light shawls that will just cover my shoulders. So off I want to look at my vast collection of patterns. Since I sell patterns, and really have some awesome patterns for sale, I guess I should have picked one of those, but I finally decided on one that I had found free on Ravelry called Citron (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/citron) that looked simple to knit and would show off the color changes in this beautiful yarn. I finally decided on Poem sock yarn in color 958 a mixture of deep rose, greens and bkue with just a touch of yellow orange that I decided would compliment several of my outfits. The shawl is a simple knit started at the top and adding increases and rouching so the shawl becomes curved and is a nicer fit than making a straight piece. The pattern is basically a 20 row repeat but only on the two rows that have the increases is there anything to think about. This pattern would work for even an advanced beginner and it only takes one skein of the sock yarn, knit not on the size #3 needle that is called for on the yarn band, but on a# 6 circular needle so the knitting goes quickly and produces a light and airy fabric

Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton Yarn Sale

Just in time for your Spring and Summer knit and crochet projects we are closing out our inventory of Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton. We need to made room for know yarns that are arriving so we have decided to offer this wonderful yarn to you at a fantastic price of $4.00. It was $6.50 per ball and this is the best price for this yarn any place on the internet. I checked. 100% cotton, machine washable, worsted weight, 96 yards per ball, 4.5 stitches on US# 8 needle. Purchase quickly to get your choice of colors while we have availablility. we only have a few colors left. the yarn is wonderful to work with and you can see it knit up in my circular knitting prject. It knits up light which is nice because many of the cotton yarns fell heavy when you knit with them and the yarn is very, very soft. http://patchworkfrog.com/debbieblissvarn.html#DBPureCotton

Kits Kits and More Kits

How often have you been ready for that next knit or crochet project but just couldn’t figure out exactly what you wanted to make.
Please check out our new and updated “kits” section. We discovered many exciting designers at TNNA this year and we have put together a wonderful collection of kits for you. Some of them are one skein, quick projects easy to carry along and some are a bit more time consuming but all are simple enough even for the advanced beginner with easy to read and follow instructions. We only picked companies offering what in our opinion are the nicest yarns with the best drape so that your garment will be truly special. http://patchworkfrog.com/knitandcrochet%20kits.html

I really cant wait to get started. At TNNA I visited the maggi Knits booth where they had lots of Maggi's shawls and wraps knit up and available to try on. Once you have put one oof these on you won't want to take it off. I picked out one called the London scarf which is one of her new designs to be my own project and will be posting pictures as soon as I get the yarn on my needles. Unfortunately i am forcing myself to finish up a gift first. I am knitting the Prima Ballerina sweater, a Sassy Skein Pattern, http://patchworkfrog.com/sassyskein.html,this time in just one color with no stripes. I will post a picture when I finish the sweater. I am using a bright pink dk weight yarn, Sirdar Snuggly. This will be a gift for a one year old. Hopefuly the knitting will go quickly so that I can move to something just for me.

My Progress

As I continue to enjoy this knitting project I keep putting the work down to watch as the circle grows. I am almost finished with this part, only a few more inches. I am still trying to figure out how much yarn I will actually use, I am working in Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton and I have just started my 6th ball and that should complete this part of the sweater and I might have some left over. I am making the small size but I like to start each new ball on an outside edge so I have some long pieces of yarn left over as I end a ball and I am saving them to use for sewing the parts together. The balls of yarn have 96 yards each so that means I will use about 576 yards for this part. The rectangle uses less stitches but may use about the same amount of yarn because it doesn't have the short rows. I am thinking that the yardage required will be about 1200 for the size small. I am keeping good notes because I think i might knit this again in another yarn after I finish this one.

Classic Rounded Jacket my summer project

I was searching though my patterns trying to find an interesting knitting project to start when a friend showed me a sweater that she had just started. The pattern is free from Zaol.
http://www.zaol.co.kr/default/02/01.php Click on Classic Rounded and then to print the pattern click on the icon on the lower right. It took me a while to figure that out since the comapy is Korean.
Knit in just two pieces, what caught my attention was that one of the pieces was a circle, the other being a rectangle and the joining of these two shapes forms a circular jacket.
When I looked at the diagram and then read the instructions I really could not visualize how this was going to work. I thought that maybe I would be knitting a tube but in fact the knitting does forma a circle as you can see in the picture of my knitting.

The pattern tells you to start with the rectangle but I was just too curious about the circle so i started with that piece and have attached a picture. I am working with Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton. I love the softness of this yarn and it gave me the stitch gauge that I needed. The pattern was written for using a thin wool held double so the yardage shown is more than you need if you work in a single yarn that gives you the correct gauge. The circle is formed by knitting short rows and repeats the pattern every 12 rows.

The cast on method suggested, because of the design of the sweater, is the chain cast on, done with both a knitting needle and a crochet hook. I had never used this cast on but the result is that the edge is the same as a bind off. I had to search the net to see exactly how it is done but here is a link that will help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhKncnlsVyk

I made several attempts at starting this project and finally decided that I would use Cat Bordhi’s method of short row knitting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFrVqx-iN7k but that I only liked the way it looked if I did the wrap in the second Knit stitch of the k2,p2 rib and then turned. Because of this I made an adjustment in the stitch I do the wraps. I am doing them on 17, 33 and 51 instead of what the pattern suggests. I also quickly figured out that marking the stitches for the wraps by placing a stitch marker and using a pin marker on the first row after the wraps are picked up means I can easily keep track of what I am doing.

This is turning out to be and easy and fun project and simple to carry along on your summer excursions.

Happy knitting
Thea