Blanket Blockery

The red pins are push pins. I bought a lot of little packs of them once when I saw them very cheap. They were my great idea for blocking because T-Pins were too expensive and hard to push in and sewing pins hurt the heck out of my fingers. They didn't work on the blanket because they are too short to stay in. The blanket is pretty thick. I'm hoping they will work on a thinner project. Worsted weight maybe not, but lace I think.

Here is the blocking process illustrated.

1. I lowered the water level in the washer and washed this on the slowest wringer speed in warm. I let it spin and then put it in the dryer with a few other dry clothes (leftover from my last load) for about 10 minutes.

2. I pinned it out using all but about 6 of the pins you see on the pin holder.

3. It pinned out to 39 X 37.25 inches.

4. Enjoy staring at and examining your knitted object for a while. Try not to obsess about imperfections.

5. See how nicely it folded up. When I unpinned it the edges pulled in a little. I'd say the final measurements are approximately 35 X 37. Perfect size, I think.

6. Prepare for giving it away by putting it somewhere cat hair free until the time comes.

I've been Remiss

Yes, I have been remiss. I say that a lot. I'm remiss a lot. So, I thought I'd better post something. Here is an old finished object about which I posted earlier and an older finished object. You saw this at the beginning. Because it was a surprise for Mrs. Hoover's birthday on December 14th (2006), I was unable to tell you at that time that it was to be gloves, but I did give broad hints. The gloves were to match the scarf that I'd made her the previous year. The left glove has an M in purl stitch and the right an H, so that she can to hold out her hands in front of herself and read her initials in order from left to right. The letters don't show that well in the photo, nor do they in real life. They're subtle. She does wear the scarf and gloves every day. I think she likes them, but it could be that she wears them just in case I peek. Well, I do peek occasionally, which is how I know she wears them everyday, or at least on the days I notice. I don't always see her accoutered for the outdoors such as at arrival and departure and playground duty times. The gloves fit pretty well because it turns out we have the exact same size hands. Mine are a might chubbier, but they are the same length. However, I assumed hers would be longer than mine and so I made the gloves just a tad longer than I'd wear them. This is why I say they fit pretty well, not perfectly well. In any case, I knit them very tightly and they are quite warm. I never did block them and I never did mean to. I only just thought of it now as a nod to helping the initials show better. The best thing would have been to make them in stockinette on a field of purl stitches. C'est la vie. Live and Learn. You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish.

The scarf has a modified drop pattern in which a stitch is dropped about 5 or 6 rows every so often. I tried to give the knitted fabric a rich, organic effect. Then too, I thought the lacyness wouldn't be warm enough around the neck. It was a mistake to worry about that because the scarf would have been plenty warm enough even with holeyness around the neck. But anyway, to deal with that, I kept the drop stitch shapes but I filled the shapes in. I don't remember how I did that, but it was during the knitting. As I hope you can see, it turned out that the part of the pattern I tinkered with to fill in those drops is actually prettier than the lace sections because they keep their shape better and don't sink into the anonymity (sp?) of ribbing.
Details: Scarf knitted December 2005; Gloves knitted December 2006


Patterns: Scarf: None, but I got the drop stitch from the 365 Knit Stitches calendar.
Gloves: None, but I looked at Knucks on Knitty to see how the fingers were worked and copied how the baby finger is actually 2 rows lower than the others.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Lamb's Pride Worsted. Color: fuchsia. 3 skeins total
Needles: I think I used a US 9 (5.5 mm) on the scarf and a US 4 (?mm) on the main body of the gloves.
What I Learned/Relearned: Gloves are a pain in the a, but mighty satisfying to finish and to wear. Mrs. Hoover and I have matching hands.