Did you just knit your first shapely little friend? Are you feeling slightly troubled, wondering how to get from what you’re holding in your hands to what you see in the pattern pictures? Well don’t fret, it’s supposed to look weird for a moment there at the end. You didn’t make a mistake!

When you’re done, they’ll look sort of like this. The one on the top right is a curved one, the one on the top left is a level one, and the one in the bottom center is one of the variations.

You have to fold these in half before they take their final shape. You can see the fold line on mine (running more or less straight up the middle). That’s because I blocked mine while they were folded, and when I opened them up to show you them here, you can still see the line.

The easiest way I’ve found to fold them is to pinch the top layer of fabric where that fold is with one hand, and pinch the bottom layer of fabric where that fold is with the other hand, and pull your hands apart.

I am not cool enough to have both hands on my knitting and another one free to work the camera, but here’s what that looks like with just one hand involved (when you do it, you’ll have your other hand on equivalent spot on the right side).

As you continue to pull your hands apart, you’ll be able to tuck one side of the fabric inside the other. It doesn’t matter which side you tuck inside the other, you can flip it around to see if you prefer one or the other.

Take a moment to wiggle things around and smooth it out. You’ll want to wiggle and primp things so that the fold is neatly lined up along one column of stitches.

Then, well then you’ll want to block it again. Because blocking them after they’re folded is what really sets the final shape.

But if you’re feeling panicked that yours doesn’t look right, there’s no need! Do that final fold, and it will suddenly pop into shape. If you want to watch a video of me doing that, you can do that over here.

And just in case you’re one of our brand new folks, or this is the first time you’re seeing this, the pattern is called Shaped, it’s just for folks here on Patreon, and you can find all the info about it over here.