Blocking your Knitting
Blocking can be an important step in the final look of your creation and we highly recommend it. It sets the stitches and makes the final piece look smoother and more polished. There are different ways to block knitting, but for our purposes, this method seems to work the best for most things knitted in natural fibers. In these directions, we will be 'wet' blocking a hat.
WET BLOCKING
Supplies
1. 1-2 old towels. If colored towels, make sure they don't bleed.
2. Shampoo or other mild soap: Eucalan or Soak, but NOT Woolite (it's actually pretty harsh).
3. Clean sink with stopper.
Directions
1. Weave in all loose ends of hat.
2. Fill sink with cool water, put about a tablespoon of knitting soap or shampoo. Swish around to make bubbles.
3. Fully immerse hat. Press water through hat and leave for 5-10 minutes.
4. Drain sink.
5. Fold hat into fourths and press out water with hands against bottom of sink.
6. Gently squeeze folded hat with your hands. DO NOT TWIST! Just fold and squeeze.
7. Lay wet hat on towel. With fingers, move and press hat back into shape on the towel. Put hat between layers of towel. Place on ground. Stand on it, pressing most of the water out with your feet.
8. Lay hat on dry towel, again pressing and forming the hat into shape and flattening stitches. It will dry into this shape.
9. Allow to completely air dry, turning and rearranging a couple of times so seams don't form at folds.
10. Line hat if desired.
WET BLOCKING
Supplies
1. 1-2 old towels. If colored towels, make sure they don't bleed.
2. Shampoo or other mild soap: Eucalan or Soak, but NOT Woolite (it's actually pretty harsh).
3. Clean sink with stopper.
Directions
1. Weave in all loose ends of hat.
2. Fill sink with cool water, put about a tablespoon of knitting soap or shampoo. Swish around to make bubbles.
3. Fully immerse hat. Press water through hat and leave for 5-10 minutes.
4. Drain sink.
5. Fold hat into fourths and press out water with hands against bottom of sink.
6. Gently squeeze folded hat with your hands. DO NOT TWIST! Just fold and squeeze.
7. Lay wet hat on towel. With fingers, move and press hat back into shape on the towel. Put hat between layers of towel. Place on ground. Stand on it, pressing most of the water out with your feet.
8. Lay hat on dry towel, again pressing and forming the hat into shape and flattening stitches. It will dry into this shape.
9. Allow to completely air dry, turning and rearranging a couple of times so seams don't form at folds.
10. Line hat if desired.
For a detailed explanation of everything regarding the blocking, washing and storage of knitted/crocheted garments, see Vogue Knitting's page.