Thursday, July 21, 2016

Block Party

It has been emphatically stated here that I loathe blocking my finished knits.  That remains true, with the only change being what-is-a-stronger-word-than-"loathe"?

The scarf that Kelli asked me --- lo, these many weeks ago --- to sample knit for her is finally done.
The body is this lovely lace, with a thin garter stitch border.  On each end
is a simple, but elegant, old shale border.

Only, I had MANY PROBLEMS with the simple old shale border.  

The scarf is about 4 feet long, and, the first time I made it, I got all the way to the ending old shale, only to find I had made a counting, and, therefore, a stitch, mistake.  I tried to unravel back to the error, but just made a hellacious mess of it all.  (One reason I rarely knit lace.)  It kept ripping back into the body of the scarf, and I finally decided to just frog the entire thing and start again.

Except I could not --- could NOT --- make that first border.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took me a week of casting on and ripping out before I finally got past about Row 6, and made it to the body.  I have never felt so defeated and fed up.  If I were making it for myself, I would have kept it unravelled and moved on to the next project.  But, since I was working for someone else, I kept at it.  And, over the weekend, I got it done.  There will never be enough "thanks" to Kelli for giving me this opportunity, and being so patient with me.

I didn't block it full-on, as it's going to be sent through the mail, and subjected to who knows how much squishing.  I did, though, give it a good steam.  While I was at it, I also tackled the Vikings shawl, which was made as part of a knitalong way back I don't know when.
The truest color is in the close-ups, and you can also see that, despite my efforts, the bottom of the shawl still curves inward.  Again, since it's for me, I normally would just let that go.  But the bottom section is in that beautiful "waves/sails" pattern, and needs to be seen.

I've said over and over that I'm a process knitter, not a product one, which might explain why blocking gripes me.  I'm done with the process of knitting;  I don't want any more to do.  Then again, blocking can be seen as part of the process, meaning maybe I should have more patience with it.  Embrace it.


3 comments:

kathy b said...

Well you like what you like and you dont what you dont! I dont like the thought of blocking anything. Those who do like it seem to find it magical. Something for everyone

camille said...

You aced that Vikings pattern! Wow! And your lace scarf is stunning! I hate to block and avoid patterns that require it as much as possible. Well done, Kim!

kmkat said...

Oh, I have been there like you with the Old Shale border. Sometimes it seems that all the knitting demons in the universe have ganged up to screw with your counting and pattern reading. Congratulations on your perseverance and eventual success!

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