KNITmuch | Issue 07

With the Simple Lace Triangle Shawl, I pinned out
the top first. Usually, you can get length or width
from a garment, but not both. With shawls, I prefer
width so I make that line first. Then I make sure all
the eyelets are open and you can see that yarn
detail. If you’re blocking a sweater and you think
it might be a bit too short, you can block it a bit
longer, or if your armhole is a bit too small, you can
block that bigger.
The beautiful thing about wool is its memory.
Natural wool remembers the shape it wants to be
in and when you use water or steam to set it in a
shape, it will naturally want to bounce back.
With synthetic fibers, they usually relax when
blocked, but wool reacts differently. If you’re
knitting with a new yarn, whether it’s Chic Sheep or
something else, I would highly suggest knitting two
swatches and blocking them. You need to know
how the yarn will react to steam and/or water. This
is very relevant to garments you intend to wash. If
the wool is going to bloom, the garment will have
a very different look. You can never have too much
information when it comes to your knitting. Swatch!
Knitting the Road to
Success Chic Hat
Here’s my ‘after’ picture! First of all, look at the size difference. That’s the same
iron and board. The blocking has increased the size, but mostly because I
aggressively blocked it to open all the lacework.
Talking of blocking made
me think of things that are
more difficult to block, hats,
for example, need to have a
specific shape and not have a
line down the length of them. I
like to combine steam and wet
blocking for things like the Road
to Success Chic Hat. This pattern
is available for free on the Red
Heart website.
What really drew me to this
pattern were the cables on
the front and clean lines they
create within the hat. It was
also designed by Marly Bird,
the inspiration for this yarn and
National Spokesperson for Red
Heart yarns. I would check out
her website if you get a chance
or even her podcast Yarn Thing.
I personally really like Marly Bird
and love her podcast. She is a
lively lady with a love of yarn.
Photo courtesy of Red Heart
The Road to Success Chic Hat is the perfect spring fashion item!
Considering the sheer volume of patterns she has written for Ravelry,
I was really excited to see her writing style and how Ravelry measured
it. Marly Bird didn’t disappoint, the pattern is well written and charted.
I love when designers give you the option to go with a chart or written
instructions. Not everyone works the same and visual learners, like
myself, may have a hard time with purely written instructions.
KNITmuch | issue 7
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