Blocking a shawl

This is the Lala Shawl, and I didn't knit it!

My friend Lynn knit this beautiful Lala for her cousin Karen. I merely offered to block it for her.

Before starting the blocking, which I did this morning, I went to Pinterest and searched "blocking a shawl." I've blocked shawls before, but I figured I can always learn something new with any undertaking.

One of the sites the Pinterest site pulled up for me was Stephanie Pearl McPhee's. I knew I'd struck gold. She's one of the best-known knitters out there. Her blog and her books provide endless entertainment and inspiration.

Stephanie mentioned that she starts the blocking process, after giving the shawl a good wet soak, by threading a yarn across the entire top edge of the shawl. This will allow you to pull the top edge straight by pining the two ends of the threaded yarn tightly once the shawl is on the blocking boards. Some people have blocking wires for this step. Stephanie doesn't, and neither do I.

I used a strong crochet cotton thread rather than yarn for the threading. It took only a few minutes to "sew" the crochet cotton through the top-edge stitches.

It was time for the blocking to begin.

This step can take a little while, but it's a process I enjoy.

I found that the edge stitches of the "V" of the shawl were a bit tight. This was somewhat of the problem, because it didn't allow me to pull those edges as straight as I would have liked. I suspect Lynn did not slip the first stitch of each row purl-wise before knitting the rest of each row.

I was briefly interrupted during the blocking by the need to add another leaf to my dining room table. This is a large shawl!


Overall, though, the blocking went well. The shawl is still a bit damp from its soak in Eucalan, but it'll be dry, I predict, by morning.

You might have noticed my blocking mats are actually children's interlocking floor mats. They work great for this purpose I asked Santa for two sets of these mats for Christmas last year, and, as usual, he came through for me. I use them for all of my post-knitting blocking.