Friday 2 February 2018

Completed Knitted Shawl!

Yay - I have finished my knitted shawl!  I bought the pattern and yarn when I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in October and pretty much started it straight away.  It's taken a few months, but I haven't worked solidly on it - I've been working on other things inbetween.

Beautiful hand knitted shawl in hand-dyed yarn.

The shawl has a garter stitch border around it, to stop the curling you get with stocking stitch.  However, I did find that it still wanted to curl, so it made blocking necessary.  I didn't actually take any photos before or during blocking - sorry.

Beautiful hand knitted shawl in hand-dyed yarn.

I don't know about you, but I find blocking such a pain!  I'm too impatient, and don't want to wait!  I knew I had to do it, though.  I pinned it all out and thought I'd try steam blocking, which I haven't done before.  I heated up my iron and pressed the steam button to puff steam out all over the shawl.  I don't actually think that's the right way to do it - I definitely did something wrong, as it didn't work!  When I felt the shawl, it didn't feel very damp - but I left it for a few hours to see what would happen.  When I had unpinned half the shawl, it curled up straight away.

Ah well!  I pinned it back down again and squirted water from a spray bottle all over the knitted fabric.  I left it a couple of days to dry before unpinning, and that had done the trick!  I'm not much of an expert on blocking (clearly) but I do wonder if I should have soaked it completely before pinning out.  I thought that it would take forever to dry, though.  Hmmm, who knows - maybe something to experiment with in the future.

Beautiful hand knitted shawl in hand-dyed yarn.

Although I dislike actually doing any blocking, I love the finished effect!  It is always so worth it!  The fabric drapes so much better and the curling is gone.  The effort always pays off.

The pictures in the pattern showed the picots around the edge more defined and 'pointy' than mine.  I could have pulled them all out with pins as I blocked the shawl, but I actually preferred the way they looked as they were - a bit of a softer look - so I specifically avoided pulling the points as I pinned.

Beautiful hand knitted shawl in hand-dyed yarn.

Quite a pleasing first finished item of 2018, I'd say!  I'm hoping for many more finished creations this year - last year was pretty sparse.

Beautiful hand knitted shawl in hand-dyed yarn.


The Details
The yarn is For the Love of Yarn in the colourway 'Fun at the Fair' - in fingering weight.
The pattern is 'Knit Me' by Inspiration Knits.
4mm circular needles used.





Check out my (very few) completed knitted projects here.


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2 comments:

  1. Is it not lovely! It looks great on. It is a pain to block, but you are right it is definitely worth it. Beautiful. (Also I like your jumper... but of course I would. Grey and sparkle...)xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! And the jumper is my current favourite - I wear it too much! But why not have sparkles all the time?! xxx

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