It's football Sunday, so I think I will block.

I could hear the football game and announcers in the background as I began working on my Textured Sweater Vest. They were talking about blocking and that is what I was planning to do. Of course, the football players version of blocking does not include pins and steam.

It's amazing how much knitted fabric stretches.

I have not had too much experience blocking before -- that is mostly because I used to knit mostly with man-made yarn and I haven't had good luck with blocking those knitted fabric. But the Patons Classic yarn that I am using will look best if properly blocked. So I went onto the internet to search for some information on blocking wool. One of the best sites I found was on Knitty.com. This article by Jessica Fenlon Thomas is quite comprehensive and gives the author's opinion on the best way to block just about any type of yarn there is, so I have made it a favorite for future use. 

After reading Thomas's advice, I grabbed the sweater pieces, pins, a measuring tape and my iron and  headed for the spare room. I stripped the blanket and comforter off the bed leaving only the sheets and the mattress pad. I measured and pinned according to the pattern dimensions. By rummaging around in my linen closet, I found a flat twin sheet and ran it though the rinse and spin cycles in my washing machine. That got it wet without sopping. I folded it in quarters and laid it over both pieces.

I have to tell you that at this point my heart was really beating. What if I screwed up!? The instructions said to sit the hot iron on top of the wet sheet to drive the steam into the fabric. My iron is a cordless iron, which was nice because I was quite a ways from an outlet, however, the iron cooled quickly on the damp sheet and required several trips to the base to reheat.

I set the iron around the edges first and worked into the center. The top layers of the sheet dried which made it easy to see where I had already been. After I had been all the way around the sheet, I removed it and left in all the pins. I will leave it pinned out until tomorrow evening. That way there will not be any question that it dried completely. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Happy Knitting!