Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Blocking

In the past I've usually just pinned out things I've needed to block on top of an old towel on the rug in my sewing room. But lately I've been reading about others using interlocking foam panels as a blocking space. When I ran across those panels in a warehouse club I decided to snap them up and give them a try. The ones I bought have 8 separate brightly colored panels (each 2 feet square) that snap together. Here's 3 of them getting ready to receive the Boteh scarf (I later added a fourth for extra length) --

Now, if needed, I can pin directly into the foam and save the rug from being damp. And here's the Boteh scarf, laying nicely on top of an old sheet, on top of the foam.

I didn't think the scarf needed pinning, but for shawls it will be a necessity. It will be interesting to see how the foam holds up to this.

I ended up dipping into a fifth skein of the Elann Peruvian alpaca to complete the scarf. If I'd left out one motif I would most certainly have had enough to finish it to pattern dimensions with four skeins, since the heavier weight yarn gave me extra length, but I had the yarn, and I like longer scarves, so there you go.

No comments: