I have a Damson!

[aunty_marion]

Ysolda Teague's 'Damson' shawl, that is. Finished it yesterday, went out today and bought a set of foam 'jigsaw' mats to block it on.

Being blocked on the mats, on my bed.

Comments

[rivenwanderer]

Oo, lovely!

I've been fretting about figuring out the best way to block my currently-in-progress shawl... those jigsaw mats look like a great idea! Did you find them locally (and if so, in what kind of store), or did you order them from somewhere?

[aunty_marion]

At least one of my friends found some in a charity shop; another got hers (I think!) from Amazon. I thought about that, but it would have meant waiting ages to get them, and I'd already asked at a local small toy-shop; they'd said they had them on order, but when I went in today to find out if they'd got them, I was told they'd been discontinued by the manufacturer! However, the owner said the big Tesco nearby had some in (so she'd been told!), so I went up there; they didn't have any, but a large-ish toy supermarket in a nearby retail park did. So try your local Toys'R'Us or similar shop. These are absolutely plain, not the ones with letters/numbers on (as those pop out); they're a fairly bright blue with a 'basketweave' dimpled-effect surface, and about 60cm square. The pack of four cost me £20.

There are some cheaper ones around, but they tend to be thinner - the next-best candidate would have been a set of more tiles (but probably the same surface area overall, as they were smaller) printed with a 'town' map with roads on, but they were only just over 1cm thick, and these are just under 2cm.

[ct]

Your profile says you're from the US. I got my blocking mats at Costco, actually, but you might also try Home Depot or another big hardware store. They're sometimes sold as padding to make being on your feet in your workshop more comfy.

[rivenwanderer]

Good to know! After Thanksgiving, I'll check out both the local hardware and children's toy stores :)

[amaliedageek]

Costco? Really? *adds to shopping list*

[aunty_marion]

I'd seen some of those in a hardware/general household goods shop, and thought about them, but they were thinner, only about 1cm thick. I wanted the thicker, more rigid ones, myself, because I only have space to do things like this on my bed! So tonight, I can take the whole thing off and stand it up against a wall, and it'll keep its shape; the thinner ones would bend and distort, I suspect.

[ct]

Ooh, nice. I like the stripeyness - it works well with the shape of the shawl.

[aunty_marion]

The stripeyness is lovely, isn't it? I was inspired to do this by seeing another friend's Damson done in the same wool (but in a different colourway) - it's Schoppel-Wolle's Zauberball.

[fish_echo]

Lovely! :)

[vilakins]

That's really beautiful. The stripes are stunning.

[aunty_marion]

The Zauberball is a lovely yarn - nice to knit with, and the long colour repeat makes for interesting stripes, whatever you make, so it seems! I was going to do socks with it, but saw someone else's Damson (in the Brombeere colourway - this is Grashalm), and was inspired.

[vilakins]

Zauberball is well-named (I used to live in Germany). I wonder if we can get it here. Maybe I'll look; we can get Opal sock yarn. [does so] Ah, one place has it. Hmmmm. :-)