Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Blocking Phase


I spend most of Saturday weaving in loose ends, and about a quarter of the way through the hateful exercise, I finally could "see" the stitches, so doing a duplicate stitch was no longer the hap-hazard game it had been in the beginning.
Blocking is tricky when you are doing swatches that look the same, but need to be labeled correctly. I did them in small batches and kept the labels nearby, then attached them next to the swatch with safety pins. [what would life be like without safety pins, velcro and duct tape?]
I transformed my laundry room into a blocking studio, with all the soaking and such taking place next door in the bathroom, and the surface of the appliances serving as a great place to work.
Just as I was getting set to finish #15, the self-designed cable piece, I noticed an error!! So had to rip it out to the error and fix it. In the process of doing that, I realized I should have had an additional row of knit, before I started the cabling, as it looks really crunched on the cast on edge. I am going to block it today and see how I feel about it.
The thing I dreaded the most, the weaving in of the loose ends, is DONE. It's finicky work and that's why it's hard for me.

3 comments:

  1. Oh My, what a great amount of work you've accomplished! You must be proud to have all that finishing done. You are officially 3/4 done!
    What colours are you choosing for the hat?
    Sorry to hear about #15, that sucks. I'm struggling with mine. I'll take a photo of the sample for you to look at, I'm not confident the pattern is withing the guidelines, I could use your advice on it.
    I've finished #1 and today I'll sit with them and work on what I can get done.
    In the meanwhile, #15 will take a seat beside me.

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  2. p.s. your laundry room is so well lit. Nice washing machine!

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  3. The darned washing machine broke down earlier in the month, apparently a bobby pin got stuck in the internal pump and destroyed it, $176 later, all was well. Grrrrrr.
    But yes, it is a wonderful energy effecient and water conserving model.
    Post your swatch and we'll see what's up. I think I will re-do mine, with a cable cast one, or in other words, knitted cast on and see if that makes any difference at the edge.
    This morning I blocked five more swatches, again finicky work as you strive to make the measurements match.
    The questions look like a pain in the arse, but I suppose are critical in establishing our understanding of what's going on.

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