Knitting: Blocking Swatches

I love to learn new things.  I love to improve upon old things I previously learned.  Currently I am a part-time teacher at the new Michaels Arts and Crafts store.  I teach/lead discussions/act as example and support for several different arts and crafts.  One thing Michaels requires is that the knitting and  crocheting teachers be certified by the Craft Yarn Council as knowledgeable enough to actually bless the students as they try to learn a new skill.  This certification process requires a somewhat costly course from the Craft Yarn Council.

Part of the certification requirements include making swatches in some basic stitches and techniques.  These small pieces of knitting have VERY specific conditions to be acceptable to the CYC.  One of them is an exact size.  To reach this size one must adjust needle size, number of stitches, and eventually blocking the pieces.

This is a picture of the preliminary swatches on blocking wires.

One little glitch in the system is that the blocking wires, which have lived in their little cardboard tube all their lives, impacted the swatches by passing on a tiny bit of dark grease-looking grunge.  This is not something I expected....

Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan: Square 21

Square 21 is called Florentine Frieze.  It is really a very nice square and not very hard.  Yet again, one has to pay somewhat attention for a while to get the pattern down, but it is possible to do.

 

This square is knit with a multiple of 4 stitches plus 1. Techniques include the knit stitch, slipping stitches with yarn in back and slipping stitches with yarn in back, and purling.

Using two colors, one light, one dark, cast on 45 stitches.

There are twenty rows in the pattern repeat, well really, there are 10 rows in the pattern repeat but you reverse colors on Row 11, so...colors change on Row 1 and Row 11.  The sky is the limit as far as colors.  You could use up scrap yarns on this using any light and dark colors.

Florentine Frieze, Square 21.  Fewer glaring errors than on some of the squares!

The above picture is the square on the blocking board. It is remarkable at how much difference the blocking of a square makes.  I have said it before but every time I marvel at how much better the stitches look and how much closer to "square" each block is after a time on the blocking board.  I still feel so smart to have figured out using  0's, 1's, and 2's in 14-inch straight needles for the blocking wires.

Because there are 70 rows in the square you could have 14 different colors if you chose.  I bet you could make something very interesting.  If I had it to do again, I think I would change every ten rows!

Knitting Today: Updated Blocking Board

One afghan square on the homemade blocking board is such a pretty thing.  The job gets done.   Having said that, with a pile of 25 or so squares to block, and looking at the size of the blocking board, it seemed like I could put three more squares on the board.  The blocking should be accomplished much more rapidly.

In some ways, this does not have to happen quickly because I have perhaps 30 more squares to knit, but...once I started the blocking, I have been so pleased with the results that I wanted more gratification!  Why have I not blocked anything all these years?  Oh, wait...I did not have a blocking board.  AND I did not think it was that important.  Now I do.

This morning I found my husband's T-Square and drew three more squares on the blocking board, thus I can now block four squares at once.  Nice!

Since taking this picture, I have gone back to the bedroom and smoothed out the blue and natural block as best I could and straightened out the line on the light blue and dark blue square by adding another row of pins where the straightening needed to be. I am hopeful that both blocks will be more nearly perfect by they time they completely dry.

Knitting Today: The Blocking Board Project

Many knitting patterns end with the words: "weave in ends and block".  I always weave in the ends and but usually leave it at that.  The Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan project has changed all that.

Recently some friends decided they wanted to knit the same afghan and learn all the stitches. This seemed like such a good idea that I decided to go back to the beginning of the book and read the introductory parts again so I could be a real mentor to these friends.  I found two things of particular interest:

 1. Barbara Walker seems to encourage knitting a gauge swatch!  What?!!! For an afghan square?  

In looking at my box of afghan blocks I discovered that knitting a gauge swatch would have been a very good idea.  At least one of the blocks will have to be re-knit because it is about 14 by 14 inches instead of the 10 by 10 inches that the garter stitch block is...the garter stitch block (Block #1) being the one by which all other blocks should be measured.

Box of completed Barbara Walker Learn to Knit Afghan squares

You will notice particularly that the stocking stitch square is rolled up like a scroll! 

SO...

2.  Blocking really does matter!  When I measured the blocks that I had completed they were all over the place in terms of sizes.

So blocking here we come...  I have blocking wires.  Somewhere stored carefully away.  The other night I was in a semi-sleep state (sadly, a rather frequent situation) when it occurred to me that 14-inch straight knitting needles would make great blocking wires for 10 by 10 inch afghan squares!

Having realized this, I went to one of my knitting needle stashes and found a pair of US size 0 needles and a pair of US size 1 needles in the 14-inch length.  This made me very happy.  Immediately threading the size 0's through one side I realized that even though these are metal needles, I should probably get another pair of size 1 needles as the size 0 needles will become curvey needles instead of straight needles if much stress is put on them for very long!  I will have to be very careful which sides of the squares I use to insert those very slim needles...

Homemade Blocking Board!

So, since I needed a blocking board, and did not have the money to purchase one, I looked around the house for something that could be used.  Several people suggested pinning the blocks to an extra bed.  Knowing myself, and my proclivity for failing to pick up EVERY LAST PIN, I decided that would not work for my family and friends who come to visit and stay overnight.

Some years ago we purchased a very nice elliptical trainer and the pads to go underneath to protect our nice floors.  There were several left over so one of them because the blocking board.  I marked out 10 by 10, 11 by 11, and 12 by 12 inch squares thinking that one of those sizes would work.  It turned out that 10 by 10 was what we needed.

 An essential part of blocking is to dampen the knitted wool for some little time before attaching it to a blocking board.  Here I had the block already "wired up" sitting between two damp washcloths.  After blocking this square I thought I might want to actually soak the squares in a sink of warm water for a while.  That works pretty well, too, but takes longer to dry out.

This  photo shows the block wired and installed on the blocking board.  It has not yet had its ends woven in...that will be coming soon!