Tuesday’s Knitting & Crochet Tip – How to Block Lace with Blocking Wires
If you’ve ever knit or crocheted lace before, your finished project can look like a crumpled mess when it’s done. It doesn’t really come to life until you’ve blocked it. Blocking is where the magic happens.
You can see in the photo to the right that my Shetland Trader Aestlight Shawl before blocking is oddly shaped. The points are curled, and the Bird’s Eye lace pattern doesn’t pop like it should.
After blocking, the top of the shawl is flat, the points are crisp, and the Bird’s Eye lace really opens up. The shawl fabric also becomes much more drapey and the yarn (Valley Yarns Charlemont) is even softer after blocking.
If you’ve ever pinned out a lace shawl or scarf to block, you may have found it frustrating pinning, adjusting, repinning to get your project to be the size and shape you want. You can use blocking wires to speed up this process. Blocking wires are thin, rigid wires that don’t rust. Instead of pinning the sides of a project with pins, you can run these wires through the edge stitches.
After attaching blocking wires to the sides of your project, you can pull out each side and place pins in just a few spots along the wire. Then if you want to adjust how far out to block a side, removing and replacing just a few pins is so much quicker than 20+ pins.
We’ve put together a quick video to guide you through the steps of how to use blocking wires.
I loved knitting the Aestlight Shawl, my first attempt at a lace shawl. Share your favorite knitted or crocheted lace shawl pattern in the comments. I’d love to add some more lace projects to my Ravelry queue.
Happy Knitting & Crocheting!
– Dena
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Tags: blocking, crochet tips, how to, knitting tips, knitting videos, lace knitting, Tuesday's Tip
May 22nd, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for sharing the tips & video! Beautiful shawl too, I love the color! 🙂
July 15th, 2012 at 4:34 am
Thank you for the tutorial! I have had blocking wires for years but never knew how to use them. I am participating in WendyKnits’ Summer Solstice Mystery Knit Along on Ravelry and I want it to come out beautifully!