So I’m working on my Alpaca Squares blanket again. As I finish 3 or 4 squares, I try to block them out and continue piecing the FO together. Here’s a little tutorial on hard (wet) blocking these squares, which may be a bit boring for advanced knitters, but may be helpful for anyone who is trying to get their squares nice and even.
To block the squares, I first pin one corner to the mat:
Then, I take my awesome clear ruler and measure downward to get my desired dimension:
The important thing to remember is that you’ll want to pin the squares at the point of the miter, so they’re nice and even. The tension pulling on those mitered corners will keep the whole square from deforming.
After I get all 4 corners pinned, I smooth out the square and pin along the sides evenly:
As I say in my video below, I use two mats to protect my table tops. This helps the pins keep a good grip on the square without creating large holes in the mats. It also protects my hands if I have to move the mats around while they’re still blocked:
Here’s the aforementioned video/ review. Hope it helps!
– YX
PS- You didn’t think I’d forget the giveaway mention, did you?
Video! With bonus Roxy in the background. Youuuu rascally wabbit!
Yay!! Video!! I loved watching Rox shift in the background – cracked me up! Susan and I got our blocking mats at Toys'r'us (like, forever ago) and they're huge! I want to say we each chipped in $15 and bought 3 sets of mats and then each took 1.5 sets. So I've got a 4'x6' blocking space. I can generally ninja things around to fit huge shawls but I have to force the blocks bc of the whole off shape of the interlocking bits is all funny. But, I figure small potatoes. It's foam, I'm the human, it will do what I tell it to!!!!!! 😉