Blocking Day

So ever since I've started knitting for serious, I've been hearing talk about this blocking thing. Patterns say, "Block the sleeves to the same size before assembling," or this witty knitting-tips book I saw somewhere says, "Don't believe what they say - it won't come out in the blocking," or the Stitch n' Bitchers say, "I'm sure this shawl will open up after it's blocked."

Yeah, whatever. If I want my sleeves the same size, then I'll knit them that way, and if I want my shawl more open, if I ever made a shawl, well I would sure as hell just use some bigger needles.


The theory of blocking has to do with fiber-memory. Natural fibers like wool or cotton, when they get wet, learn the shape they are placed into and remember it when they dry. The idea of blocking is, then, to wet your knitting down, to shape, stretch, and scrunch it perfectly, and then to let it dry.

"Oh please," I have often silently scoffed, "- that will never work!" Knitted fabric is like a liquid - it drapes over whatever form you place it on, but it doesn't inherently have a shape itself. Fiber-memory can't actually be that strong.

Even if it was, the implication is also that blocking is temporary: what if I spent ages perfectly blocking my sweater, and the next day my sweater got rained on, I'd have to block it all over again or it would dry and remember the shape of rain.



Now a couple of months ago, I completed knitting my Ireland sweater, which was my final project on the Ireland study-abroad program this summer. I'd been working on this sweater since August, and finishing it was a huge accomplishment for me. Trouble was, when I put it on, the shoulders puffed up like the 60's, and I just looked like a goofis!

I didn't want to admit that my sweater made me look like a goofis, so I compensated by conspicuously never wearing it, and I told people that all the joy had come in the knitting process - wearing it was not important. Not a complete lie, but yeah kinda.

I grudgingly took my sweater to the Stitch n' Bitch at Panera a week or two after I'd finished knitting it, terrified that they would make me try it on for them. I would self-consciously put on the sweater, looking at my toes, and the ladies would avert their eyes too, not wanted to say the truth, that the shoulders were horribly awkward. Anyway, they didn't make me try it on, but I explained the problem to them anyway. And the ladies said, "Oh I bet that will come out in the blocking!"

WHAT?! No.

But I wondered of course, what if they're right? Maybe I should actually try blocking it and just see what happens?

Anyway, I put off actually blocking the thing for about two months. I'd told my mom that I was going to do it though, and she kept asking me whether I'd done it yet. When she asked I would vaguely say I would do it soon, not really wanting to.

What made me finally bite the bullet was my spinning. One of the most essential steps in spinning is to wash the yarn once you have spun and plied it. Otherwise, the yarn will unravel. But by washing and drying (that is, blocking) the spun yarn, the yarn learns to the remember the twist and does not unravel. This had worked for me. Maybe blocking would too.


So Sunday morning I awoke, and it was blocking day!

I'd studied the theory closely with the help of this and this youtube video, and without further ado, I filled up the bathtub. I thought my dad might yell at me for wasting water, but he didn't. I soaked my Ireland sweater, the argyle sweater-vest I knitted several years ago, my newly completed gravitational lensing mittens, my new handspun hat, and the wool sweater I'd gotten on Black Friday that I hadn't really wanted to wear since Leo accidentally threw it in the trash.

While the knitting stewed, I got out some towels, and I fetched Momo's pin cushion.

One by one, I removed the things from the slowly-draining tub. As instructed, I wrapped them in towels and stepped on them to press out the water. Then I lay them out on Laura's bed, shaped them, and pinned them down.


I blew the fan for around 24 hours, and when I got home from work today, things were basically dry. I tried on my sweater. It was... INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything was true, and though the shoulders aren't perfect, they sit about a hundred times better on me. Even if the sweater is still a bit itchy, I will definitely be able to wear it now. My knitting days are transformed.

love, Jimmy


PS - my two mittens? after I blocked them, they are like totally the same size.