Why blocking your hand-knit items is important and how to block them
You’ve spent precious time and money creating beautiful hand-knitted items, but you keep reading that to finish them properly they need to be ‘blocked’. What is blocking? What happens if I don’t block my knitting? And, most importantly how do you block your knitting?
Find out all the answers in our article.
What is blocking?
Blocking is the process of wetting your knitting so that it can be reshaped and dried to reach its full potential. Blocking helps to even tension and opens up delicate lace knitting making your knitted products come alive.
Reasons to Block Your Knitting
Check out the main reasons you should block your knitting.
1. Blocking relaxes your yarn which helps even your tension.
2. Blocking can help to relax cable and lacework. Finished knitting may look crumpled and curled, but once blocked and pinned open you will be amazed at how fabulous it looks.
3. Block separate garment pieces before construction to make sure they are the same size, use a ruler to make sure you have blocked everything correctly.
4. Blocking helps flatten curled edges and straighten uneven sides.
How to block your knitting
There are two main methods to block your knitting wet blocking and steam blocking. We will outline both methods.
Equipment you will need
· Wet blocking- a container big enough for your knitting filled with water and wool wash
· Steam blocking- an iron.
· A towel
· A flat surface
· pins
· Blocking boards (children’s foam tiles and yoga mats also work well)
· Optional- Blocking wires
· Optional- sock blockers
Wet blocking
1. Fill your container with lukewarm water and your wool wash. No hot water, we don’t want to felt your knitting.
2. Soak your knitting for 5-15 minutes.
3. Lift your knitting out of the water, do not wring out the excess water, this will stretch your knitting, and gently squeeze the length of your knitting to remove the water.
4. Place your knitting on a towel and roll it up. Squeeze the towel and knitting together to remove even more water. Standing on the towel with bare feet works really well.
5. Remove your knitting from the towel and begin to lay it out on a flat surface, ready for blocking.
6. Before pinning your knitting in place make sure you have the shape and dimensions correct.
7. Blocking wires can be used to help pin lace and control the shape of your knitting before pinning.
8. Pins should be placed around 2 inches apart all the way around your knitting.
9. When blocking socks slide them onto our purpose-made sock blockers to shape and dry them perfectly. We carry adult sock blockers, kids sock blockers, and mitten glove sock blockers set..
Steam blocking
1. Set your iron to the steam setting. Test your yarn before starting to make sure it won't burn or melt.
2. Cover your blocking mat with a towel and pin your dry knitting in place to the towel
3. When heated, hold your iron 2-3 inches above your knitting.
4. Steam your knitting thoroughly by slow-moving the iron over your knitting.
5. Let your knitting dry before removing the pins.
The steam method can yield unpredictable results but may be helpful when only needing to block small areas of a project.
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