You know how I’m always um, let’s say ‘encouraging’ you to block your knits? Yeah. Here’s why.

This is the same pattern (Constellate, it’s not out now, but the clever among you can probably guess that this little stack of goodness means it will be soon), knit in the same yarn (Seven Sisters Arts’ gorgeous color wheels). Just one is blocked and one isn’t (yet).

The blocked one is just so much smoother and more even and more orderly, all for about 5 minutes of effort.

And yeah, every single time I do something like this, I get someone piping up with ‘I like it better unblocked!’ And that’s fine! You get to like what you like!

But, unless you’re making something you’re never ever ever going to wash (which, I’m sorry, but I don’t recommend that, the process of knitting means you get skin and oil from your hands on your project, and you want to get those off so as not to invite moths if nothing else), and never ever ever going to get wet (like, say, by wearing it when it’s raining or snowing), that’s not going to go well.

Because MOST of blocking is ‘get it wet, smooth it out, let it dry.’ And MOST knitting is going to get wet at some point.

So the solution to ‘I like the texture better before blocking’ is ‘change your knitting so that your post-block texture works for you’ not ‘never ever ever let it get wet.’ The best way to change your knitting to do that is usually to switch to smaller needles, (because a lot of times what people like about the pre-blocked fabric is its density, which often changes when a fabric relaxes when it gets wet). But only a nicely sized swatch, washed and blocked, will tell you for sure.

Luckily, at least in this case, I absolutely love the post-block texture on these, which means it’s time to throw the other one in the sink for it’s spa day!