Sarah Jane Humke

So, I finished knitting the clapotis some time ago and have yet to block it.  I know, I know… what am I waiting for???  Well, to be truthful, I was waiting for today.  Simply put, the weather outside is wretched and it’s nice and warm inside and, well, I don’t have anywhere else to be or anything else to do.  All in all, a perfect day for blocking an enormous scarf on the floor somewhere and trying to keep the cats from eating the pins holding it in place.  Seriously, Milo thinks that my blocking pins are positively scrummy from some reason!

So, here are some photos of my action packed clapotis blocking.  Try not to get too excited or I may have to restrain you.

First I gave the Clap a little bath in the sink with my Soak fine fiber wash.  I was really pleased that there was almost no dye bleeding at all because, lets face it, bleeding generally just sucks!

Then I unplugged the sink and let it drain nicely so that the wet knitting sat in there like a very brightly colored pile of over-cooked ramen noodles.  I let it sit there for a bit like this and then gently smooshed some excess water out of it.

(See what I said about super exciting?!?!  Aren’t you on the edge of your damn seats?)

Then I took it into my office/studio/study/playroom to block on the floor.  I put down towels as we are a fuzzy family and no amount of vacuuming is going to change that.  I mean, we have 2 long hairs, 6 short hairs and one who doesn’t know exactly what he is living in this house.  We are a house of fuzz.  Period.  Anyway, I put two clean towels on the floor and sort of set-up a frame with the blocking blocks that I use (actually pieces from a giant foam checkers set that I picked-up for a song this summer) and pinned the clapotis in place.  I didn’t do a hard blocking with it as I know that it tends to curl as part of its design.  I just didn’t want it to look like a big pile of multicolored hot mess anymore!

I didn’t use a ton of pins like I would if I were pinning lace because I want to avoid an emergency vet office trip with Milo.  Also, I just didn’t really feel like it needed it all that much.

Here’s another photo to give you some perspective on the size of this thing.  It’s easily longer than the loveseat that I am sitting on writing this!

(Yes, that is a bag of clean wool awaiting carding beside the clapotis.  Malcolm got into it the other night (he likes to snack on wool when he can) and thus the little tufts sticking out.  What?  You don’t have bags of wool sitting around your house?)

Ok, I’m now off to bake some cookies.  I will hopefully be able to show y’all a picture of the clap dry and worn in a few days…