I’m so excited.
My Knit Picks blocking wires arrived today.
I promptly dunked my Hanami stole into a vat of water, drained it and began threading the wires in.
It wasn’t as easy as I had imagined, but still way WAY easier than trying to stretch out this stole with pins alone. Hooray for whoever thought of blocking wires the first time!
Anyhoo, it took me some time, two glasses of wine, and a crick in my back, but the stole is finally blocking. (Don’t look too closely if you’re a perfectionist).
Strangely enough, although I used the same yarn and needles as the designer, I seem to have ended up with a stole that is about a foot shorter than it’s supposed to be. Maybe I was too cautious in the blocking, but when the yarn is extremely taut and making an ominous creaking noise, I have to stop tugging. Call me cowardly, but there you have it. (Maybe if I didn’t have people who needed things like ‘dinner’ and ‘bedtime stories’ kicking around, I could have stretched it out when it was still sopping wet and not re-sprayed-wet and it’d have gone further. Or maybe not. I have not found the Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud to be very stretchy in the past).
So here we have it, blocking on some mats I originally bought for gymnastic toddlers:
WOW! That is gorgeous! Nicely Done.
I have no idea how you did this, but it’s wonderful! You must have the patience of a saint, but it’ll be so worth it – it’s really nice :-)
Thanks! Most of the credit goes to the pattern designer, who did a fantastic job.
I’ve found that knitting *grants* me patience during long car rides and calms me after a long day!
Love it! This is on my list of things to make…may have to move it up in the queue!
It was a fun knit. Complex but not insanely so.
Jules this is beautiful. Do you take orders….?
I tried to knit a childs cardigan, thinking it would take me a couple of weeks (I’m a total beginner). A year later I finally got it finished. It took two attempts, as first time round I sewed it together the wrong way (made such a good job of the sewing I couldnt find the knot to undo it, and cut the wrong bit, cue 6 months work literally unravelling before me, and much gnashing of teeth) but eventually got it done and on the child before she outgrew it.
I doff my hat to you for this beautiful piece of work!