you know that i adore you

[starfallz]

I finally finished one of my longest running projects, the River Scarf for Silere.



Knit from Fiber Trend's River Scarf pattern with Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Tidepool. This shot shows the detail of the pattern, the river stream between grassy banks.


Love the picot edging.



And just because I like to see the transformation:
Pre-blocking...


Post-blocking...

Comments

[metachaos.livejournal.com]

So pretty! Yay! ^_^

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Thankee :)

[silere.livejournal.com]

<3 it's beautiful, and so soft. :) thank you!

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you like it. :)

[unmutual.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Great job! I'm really looking forward to doing some lace of my own now. (See what you've done to me? *grin*)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Muhahahaha...

[kodekitten.livejournal.com]

Holy wow. That looks just amazing!!!

How do you personally block? I know everyone has their own preferences. I noticed a blocking board on another post -- was that terribly expensive? I know yarn is always worth it (^_^), but is there a homemade substitute? I haven't blocked anything before, and now I'm feeling all kinds of guilty that I haven't. :)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Eh, no reason to feel guilty! It isn't important for a lot of items, but it can give them a nice finish. In wool or other natural fibers it helps even up stitches, help it lay flatter and can get wool to "remember" a bit of shape tweaking. I also often wash and block an item because I've been carrying it everywhere while knitting on it and want it to be nice and clean before giving it to the recipient.

For lace items, it is very important though, as the point of lace is the pattern and it needs to be blocked to "pop". It needs a bit of help to go from looking like a wadded up bunch of cloth to a nicely patterned flat fabric.

Here is a good tutorial by Eunny Jang on how to block lace. http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/12/how_to_be_happy.html

Many people block by pinning things to a sofa or couch. Others have found the interlocking foam floor blocks work well. I was using some generic foam sheets from the hardware store for a while before I was given this blocking board.