What is Blocking??

[Lucy78green]

Reading through a few posts and came across blocking, maybe we call it something differentin Ireland - how do you do it - is it the same as pinning something out and steam ironing it???

[suzeeq]

Pretty much the same thing. Some people wet their finished object thoroughly, blot or gently squeeze the excess water out, then pin or lay it out to dry.

What do you call it in Ireland?

sue

[Lucy78green]

It probably is called blocking here too, just most knitting patterns I've read just say to iron under a damp cloth or pin out and steam iron - I never really bothered myself but I was wondering if it would make a pattern I'm following sit better. I'm making a baby's jumper as a Christmas present for my friend's son. It's an old 1970s pattern of my mums and it specified a brand of wool that's no longer made without saying what type of wool it was. I think it must have been a finer wool than the wool I used (double knit - I think you guys call it sport weight or something). It has a bit of a lace motif and the pattern is rather gappier than in the photo.

[suzeeq]

I think DK is heavier than sport yarn. Maybe it calls for fingering yarn, which is pretty thin - about 6.75-8 sts/inch, while sport is 5.75-6.5/inch and DK is 5.25-6/inch - all on different size needles.

sue

[Lucy78green]

It specified Patons Fairlytale Quickerknit Courtelle/Bri-Nylon - it doesn't say which ply, but I had a ball of baby blue Acrylic DK left over - so I changed the needle size up to match - the size seems ok though if I knit the smaller size (knitting the newborn pattern measures same as three month old pattern). It's a 1975 pattern though! My mum recently found her grandmother's knitting pattern book - which was quite entertaining too - knitted underwear might be a bit itchy!

[suzeeq]

Did they use wool yarn, or maybe linen?

sue

[Stiney]

My mum recently found her grandmother's knitting pattern book - which was quite entertaining too - knitted underwear might be a bit itchy!

Or sticky.

[suzeeq]

I dunno... did they have that stuff in great grandma's day?

sue

[Lucy78green]

Did they use wool yarn, or maybe linen?

sue

They say 3 ply vest wool...
My dad's great aunt made him matching pink vest and underpants - which he said was very itchy and he was made to wear them - but when he was playing sport in school he always made sure that he was last out of the changing room before getting changed as the other boys might not have appreciated them...

[auburnchick]

but when he was playing sport in school he always made sure that he was last out of the changing room before getting changed as the other boys might not have appreciated them...

Thanks for a good laugh!

Nathalie