Blocking 201 – Cowls
Published On: September 9, 2016

I posted a rather unassuming little picture on instagram a little while ago, and from the comments it got, it seems like you guys are as into blocking as I am.  So, as instagram is a bit impermanent, I thought I’d come chat about it a bit here too.

This is how I block cowls.

block a cowlLet’s break that down a bit.  I’ve got blocking wires (mine are from Inspinknity) threaded through the top and bottom edges.  Here I’ve passed the wire through the tips of the scallops because I want to emphasize the wavy edge.  If I wanted a smoother edge, I’d pass it through more points.

Then I’ve got a pair of long straight needles passed under the wire at the top.  They’re there to act as a sort of cross bracing when I set the whole thing down on a roll of paper towels.  You don’t have to use paper towels, they’re just usually handy and usually tall enough.  Anything that will fit inside the knitting and hold it up off the ground will work fine.

This setup is marvelous because you don’t have to worry about any sneaky creases.  If your cowl dries laying down flat, it will have a crease on each side where it’s folded.  You can sort of fix that by coming along and refolding it every hour or two, but that’s much more work, especially if you want to pin out scalloped edges every time like on this one.  The whole piece is held in tension, and there’s great air circulation so it dries much faster than if it were pinned to a mat or a towel.

And the result?  Well I think it’s rather lovely!

blocked

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