Blocking lace with points
May. 18th, 2011 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Hi, all!
Last year I knitted the Argus Shawlette when we had that knit-along (speaking of which--that was fun, we should do it again!). I blocked it with points along the lower edges like in the pictures, but it lost its decorative points very quickly after blocking. Do you have any advice how to make it keep the decorative points? I suppose I could try starch, but I'm hoping not to need to.
It was my first time blocking lace, and I'm quite prepared to believe I did something wrong--but I can't see what it would have been! (I got the shawl thoroughly wet, gently squeezed out some of the water--though I realized later I could have taken out a lot more water--and pinned it into shape on a clean sheet on a bed, and left it til it was dry.)
Last year I knitted the Argus Shawlette when we had that knit-along (speaking of which--that was fun, we should do it again!). I blocked it with points along the lower edges like in the pictures, but it lost its decorative points very quickly after blocking. Do you have any advice how to make it keep the decorative points? I suppose I could try starch, but I'm hoping not to need to.
It was my first time blocking lace, and I'm quite prepared to believe I did something wrong--but I can't see what it would have been! (I got the shawl thoroughly wet, gently squeezed out some of the water--though I realized later I could have taken out a lot more water--and pinned it into shape on a clean sheet on a bed, and left it til it was dry.)
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Date: 2011-05-18 07:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 07:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 08:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 08:41 pm (UTC)I've wet-blocked silk with no problems, you just have to be gentler with it than wool--don't tug it as hard, don't pin it out as aggressively, that sort of thing. I've also seen little-to-no difference with the long-term behavior of a piece made from a lace yarn versus one made from a sock yarn of equivalent fiber content. How a yarn is spun can make a difference, but not as dramatic a one as you describe, IMO. How does the rest of the shawl look? Has it retained its shape and general appearance--i.e., is the edge the only place where you're seeing an issue with the appearance?
I have a wool shawl that I knit five years ago from a multi-ply worsted weight wool yarn. It's been washed and blocked once. It lives on my couch and gets a fair bit of wear about the house. The edges are still somewhat pointy--not as pointy as when it was first blocked, but the edge is still scalloped and it's obvious where the points were pinned out. That's why I asked you about your cast-off edge--if you cast off too tightly, it's going to fight with your blocking (and make it more difficult to block).
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Date: 2011-05-18 09:15 pm (UTC)The shawl hung on my wall for several months and has mostly been folded up since then. The rest of it still looks fairly open.
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Date: 2011-05-18 09:20 pm (UTC)Binding off lace can be so tricky--there have been times when I've gone ahead and used the bind-off suggested in the pattern and then looked at it and realized that while it looks okay in the unblocked state, it's not going to work blocked and I end up having to re-do it. Usually I catch it a quarter to halfway through the bind off, so it's not as dire as it could be.
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Date: 2011-05-18 07:42 pm (UTC)That's what's happened to your shawl. I haven't done very much with blocked lace, but I've read a lot.
There are other factors: the fiber and the kind of yarn used (many sock yarns are spun to be springy and bouncy--which makes them lose blocking more easily).
There are fibers which tend to lose their blocking less: silk (don't wet block 100% silk, though; it's weak when wet -- block it out dry and then steam it) and alpaca are two I know of. Cotton and linen can also be good, though I think they tend to go limp instead, so I've read that people like to use starch on them.
I don't know if starch would work on wool.
I've been thinking hard about this since I'm just planning another wool lace shawl; my current plan is to use larger needles and not block aggressively. I plan to let the blocking smooth out the stitches; if I don't stretch it a lot, I'm hoping the wool won't spring back.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 07:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-18 10:36 pm (UTC)which sounds good
but, leaves out what the actual original shape is.
which isn't the same as saying "what it looked like in the skein"