Sunday, September 14, 2008

Blocking Laminaria

I tackled her and it on Saturday. Laminaria and the blocking.

I've been nervous about the blocking for quite some time, imagining all sorts of disasters and mishappenings. I also thought it would take me hours and hours of pinning and unpinning while crawling on the floor.

At knit night on Thursday, Stick-smurf told me to just dive into it. Not make such a big deal out of it. She said she normally spent about half an hour on her blocking. And as she's blocked nuuuumerous shawls, she should know.

I soaked Laminaria for about an hour and a half in lukewarm water. I started building my hopscotch puzzle on the floor in our office and realized it would be a pain in the a$$ fitting everything in there, when boyfriend came up with one of his brilliant ideas (he's full of them when it comes to making my life easier) and told me to move everything out into the garage where I'd be able to work on a table.

Blocking preparation
A blocking table in our garage

I did spend more than half an hour on pinning this. I moved pins around until I was sick of them. I didn't get everything to line up as I initially wanted to, but I gave up. And realized it looked fine.
Blocking in progress
Blocking in progress

The lace pattern really grew and opened up when blocked. As it should.

Blocking!
Open lace

I love this shawl! My first proper blocked shawl! She's unpinned now and will go with me to work tomorrow.

Modelling picture another day when the weather, my time and my boyfriend all cooperate!

7 comments:

ekittie said...

That's so beautiful! I had no interest in this when I saw it in Knitty, but I've wanted to make one ever since seeing yours. :kram:

iKate said...

Anna--it's simply stunning!!! How lovely! Congratulations on a job well done...or well knit! :)

Stick-smurf said...

Superfin! Ja, ja, det kanske tog lite mer än en halvtimme att nåla ut den. =)
Ser fram emot att klappa den när vi ses nästa gång!

Kram

Tricia said...

It's beautiful! Congrats on following through with the blocking! A finished product like that makes all the frustration you might have had absolutely worth it.

Geek Knitter said...

Oh, isn't that just lovely! It's amazing what blocking can do, isn't it? Can't wait to see it being modeled.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic...
-Shell

Kim said...

I love this design. Yours is beautiful and I'll bet was fun to wear. Did you feel like a Queen?