January 31, 2009

Lace knitting: is the miracle of blocking real?

I really hope so.
seascape in progress

I'm loving knitting this pattern - the waves are so elegantly designed and the diamonds are a little treat. Love it. 

At least, I love it when I lay the piece out and smooth it all out so it isn't a crumpled mess. I've heard about the miracle of blocking lace, and how everything suddenly pops and the heavens open up and sing the praises of yarn overs, but I'm nervous about it. Will it happen for this project? Did I pick too heavy of a yarn? I love how it looks when I fake-block by hand, and I'm head over heels for the nubbly handspun in this pattern, but after every row I look at it an wonder: will it block out?

Here's hoping.

6 comments:

Margaret said...

Yes! Blocking is a true knitting miracle. Every time.

Anonymous said...

Yes,it's amazing what blocking does. But why not find out now? You can loosely block the portion you've done. If it's going to change the dimensions of your finished piece - and it sometimes does that quite radically - it wouldn't hurt to know that now, and you'd get to see what it will look like. It took me years to figure out that it's OK for me to take an advance peek!

Jen Diamond said...

Take this the right way...I am a little disgusted with how prolific of a knitter you are. Slowly I chug along. I am reassured that you will one day have a child or more of your own and then I won't be so slow. I hope...

I love you.

Allison said...

You can continue to believe in the miracle of blocking but, as Sara said, you can also sneak a peek by blocking what you've done so far. I will have to admit to doing it all the time so that I can take pictures to post.

Jen said...

It's so pretty!! =)

Christy said...

Oh, I think that will block beautifully. And it's a lovely color - very Vildish. ;)