Two shawls blocking
Last weekend I set out to make a dent in the "to be finished" pile of knits and tackled the Luluzinha shawl and shawlette. Here's the shawlette, spread out on the back of the armchair:
The sun blew out the colors somewhat but you can get a good idea of what this looks like in this picture anyway. I really love how this little guy came out! I decided not to block the shawlette out "hard" to see how the stitches looked in a more relaxed state and I have to say they look pretty darn good. The points at the bottom lay flat on their own with no coaxing at all! As you can probably tell from all those ends, those points are knit individually and are formed by decreasing on either side. This technique results in significantly different-looking points than the ones that are on Leila, for example, and give the shawl a more unusual finished edge. I'm quite taken with the effect! If only it didn't require so many ends to be woven in . . .
For the full-size shawl I did break out the blocking wires and pins because its unblocked state was more distorted than the shawlette's. You can't see it clearly in this shot but there are wires and pins along the straight edge of the shawl. I also pinned out each point as I stretched the shawl and left them pinned out for about an hour, then unpinned them so they'd relax more. The effect of blocking this shawl "hard" is not that noticeable but does result in a more open, drape-y, fabric and in slightly different angles for the lines. I think it's a nice example of how blocking can change a piece!
I was surprised by how big this shawl came out after blocking, it just kept stretching and stretching as I pinned and pinned. It's probably the largest triangle shawl I own and I love it! Now to weave in those ends so I can actually wear it and take FO shots . . .
Diane
December 31, 2009
Beautiful!
Happy new year :)