Blocking

Nocturna · 07-01-2006, 03:05 PM

Heyy guys

I juuuuust now figured out what blocking was, and I want to give it a try. I read the article on it (the one posted on the KH site) and it gives lots of nice details and its easy to understand, but to be on the safe side I wanted to get some of your opinions too. The article doesn't say anything about acrylic yarn (the Lion Brand yarn I used is 80% acrylic and 20% wool), so does anyone know a good way to block this? (if this helps, I made a rectangle that I'm later going to seam up to make into a purse, and it has cables and ribbing. the yarn is Lion Brand wool-ease chunky)

Thanks for any help! And one last question... blocking CAN be done on pretty much anything, right?

07-01-2006, 08:22 PM

Acrylic can't be blocked the way natural fibers can. What I do with my acrylic or mostly acrylic blend projects is wash them per the washing instructions on the yarn. The stitches even out and all that good stuff.

AidanM · 07-01-2006, 09:55 PM

Steaming acrylic is actually bad, as it can make the fibers go limp and take away of the previous shapeliness of the piece. It's usually better after it dries, but it's still not quite the same. Yeah, steaming acrylic is a bad idea.

Mer · 07-02-2006, 01:33 AM

I would also just wash an acrylic or mostly acrylic piece and let it dry flat to try to even things out. You most likely wouldn't be able to change the size of the finished piece or keep it from curling, etc. but that wouldn't matter too much if it's something you're going to seam up.