How to Block Knitting

1. 1

   Step 1: Lower the Knitted Sweater Into a Sink of Room Temperature Water

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   Fill a clean sink or a basin with room temperature water. Not warm, not cold. Heat plus movement is what felts wool, so tepid is the safe setting and it costs you nothing. Lower the sweater onto the surface and let go of it.

   Plain water is enough for a block. A capful of no-rinse wool wash softens the fibre and leaves a light scent, and you never have to rinse it back out, which is the whole point of the stuff.

   Tip:

   Read the yarn band before you fill the sink. Wool, alpaca, cotton and linen all wet block. Acrylic holds no shape from water at all, so it takes steam instead: hover the steamer an inch above the surface and never press it down onto the stitches.

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   Used in this stepsoak no-rinse wool washhandheld garment steamer

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2. 2

   Step 2: Press the Sweater Under the Water With Both Hands

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   A dry knit is full of trapped air, so the sweater rides on the surface like a raft. Put your palms flat on it and press it under, moving across the whole garment until the sleeves and the collar are all sitting below the waterline.

   Hold it down in one spot at a time rather than rubbing or swirling it around. Agitation is what mats wool fibres into felt. Once the sweater stops pushing back, leave it alone for 15 minutes so the water gets right into the core of every strand.

   Tip:

   Set a timer. Fifteen minutes is the minimum rather than the target, and a dense wool sweater is happy sitting in there for half an hour.

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3. 3

   Step 3: Lay the Damp Sweater Flat on Towels Beside the Pattern Schematic

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   Lift the sweater out as one bundle with both hands under it, so the weight of the water is not hanging off the shoulders. Press it against the side of the basin, then lay it on a dry towel, roll the towel up like a sleeping bag and lean on it.

   Unroll it onto fresh dry towels, or onto foam blocking mats if you own a set, and open the sweater out to roughly the right shape. Put the pattern page down next to it so the finished measurements are in front of you.

   Tip:

   Never wring a wet knit and never hang one up to dry. Both stretch the fabric out of shape, and a hanger leaves you with shoulders that poke out like a coat hook.

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   Used in this stepfoam blocking mats with grid 9-piece setbath towel set 8 piece cotton

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4. 4

   Step 4: Measure Across the Chest From Underarm to Underarm

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   Pull the tape straight across the chest from one underarm to the other. Laid flat you are measuring half the body, so a pattern that says a 35 inch bust wants 17.5 inches across the towel.

   Short of the number? Walk the side edges outward with your fingers until it lands. Over it? Push the sides in. Wet stitches slide against each other, so the fabric goes where you put it and stays there once it dries.

   Tip:

   Keep the tape parallel to the hem instead of following the curve of the underarm. A tape that wanders on the diagonal reads long and sends you chasing a number that was never wrong.

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   Used in this stepcloth tape measure

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5. 5

   Step 5: Measure the Armhole Depth From Underarm to Shoulder

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   Stand the tape on its end at the underarm and run it up to the top of the shoulder. That is your armhole depth, and on a raglan it decides whether the sweater sits on your shoulders or slides off them.

   Hers came out at about 9 inches against a schematic asking for 8. One inch of extra drop sounds like nothing written down and reads as a sloppy fit on a body, which is exactly the sort of thing blocking exists to fix.

   Tip:

   Measure both sides. Work knit in the round can come off the needles a little uneven, and a shoulder that is right on the left and long on the right will look like a fitting problem forever once you block it in.

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6. 6

   Step 6: Push the Shoulder Fabric Into Shape and Pat It Flat

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   Push the underarm up with one hand and draw the shoulder down with the other until that extra inch is gone. The fabric bunches where you compressed it, so flatten the bubbling by patting the surface and pressing the stitches closer together.

   Measure, adjust, measure again. Two or three rounds is normal. If an edge keeps creeping back, a few rust-proof T-pins through the fabric into the towel or a blocking mat will hold it there until it dries.

   Tip:

   Work with flat palms rather than fingertips. A fingertip digs a dent into wet wool, and that dent dries in as a visible mark on the finished sweater.

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   Used in this steprust-proof stainless steel t-pins 200-pack

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7. 7

   Step 7: Ease the Neckline Into a Smooth Curve

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   Run your fingers around the neckline and look for corners. A neck edge that came out angular instead of round dries that way, and no amount of wearing it will talk it into a curve later.

   Push the high points down and coax the edge into one continuous line, then pat the ripples flat behind your hand. The collar sits under everybody's chin and it is the part of a sweater people look at, so give it the extra two minutes.

   Tip:

   Stand back a couple of feet and look at the neckline from there. A curve is hard to judge with your nose against the fabric, and the eye picks up a lopsided collar instantly from a distance.

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8. 8

   Step 8: Run the Tape Down Each Sleeve From the Underarm

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   Measure from the underarm to the cuff on one sleeve, then do the other one. Sleeves knit weeks apart often come off the needles a half inch out of step, and this is the last chance you get to even them up. Stretch the short one gently until the two numbers agree.

   Then stop touching it. Leave the sweater flat and undisturbed until it is bone dry, which is a day for a light knit and two or three for a dense wool one.

   Tip:

   Dry it somewhere with moving air but out of direct sun. A fan running low across the room halves the drying time. A radiator or a sunny windowsill dries the top face while the underside stays damp.

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How to Knit Cables

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