blocking |’bläki ng | n. a finishing process in which knitted fabric is moistened (either by water or steam), then shaped to final measurements. Blocking ensures even stitches and helps to flatten out any curled edges.
I've come to the conclusion that the most successful completion of a knitted piece is entirely dependant on how you do the finishing steps. The finishing steps have to include blocking. Case in point: I had decided to knit this sweater using my hand-dyed wool -- with some variations, but still the basic sweater.
If you look closely you can see it was poorly finished -- ripples and pulling at the edges. But I thought the basic pattern had some merit. I used a variation on traditional ribbing and decided to knit the front ribbed bands right as part of the body -- vertical ribbing instead of horizontal. I also "boxed" out the body a bit because I was aiming for a 'swing jacket' look. I eliminated the second band of ribbing on the sleeves (I thought that made it look dated) and lengthened the sleeves a bit. And last, I decided against 3 big buttons and did a double button band.
But the most important thing I did was carefully block all of the pieces before sewing them together -- no rippled sleeves or edges for this project! My blocking board is actually just a cardboard cutting board that I covered in clear Contact Paper. Because it has a 1-inch grid all over I can block the pieces to the exact sizes needed. So I can make sure that both sleeves are the same, both fronts are the same, etc. To block my knitting I submerse the pieces in water, then gently roll them in a towel to remove the excess water. Next I simply pin them to my blocking board (using lots and lots of pins to avoid stretching edges) and leave it for a few days to dry. The result is flat, even knitted pieces that are easy to sew together.
At the end of the day, I'm very happy with my hand-dyed wool swing jacket. I started with this:
And I ended up with this:
I'm happy and I have a nice spring/summer sweater.
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