Look, I never said I wasn't easily amused. I fully admit to being scandalously easily amused.⁠ But also, I have been actually sewing stuff, like with a sewing machine. And that means I've been interacting with pins way way way more than anyone really needs to. And it turns out I rather like having a little magnetic pin holder to toss them on as I wrench them from my fabric or harvest them from as I impale said fabric.⁠ And yes, perhaps in an ideal world I'd just by one like a normal person.⁠ But I am not a normal [...]

And there it is dry and with the wires out. The second picture is pretty much the exact same shot before it was blocked so you can see the difference. The fabric is relaxed. The stitch pattern is clear with crisp lines of decreases and nice open yarn overs. The top and bottom both have a lovely scalloped edge with adorable little points. The fabric is several inches bigger left to right and top to bottom. The total active time (not counting soaking time or drying time) was about ten to fifteen minutes. I ran the two wires through the [...]

Now all we need to do is hang it up and wait for it to dry. You may have noticed I haven't said anything about getting your fabric wet yet. That's because I do not like weaving the wires through damp fabric. It just feels icky in my hands (and it's harder to take decent pictures of damp fabric, but that's probably only a problem for me). If you don't mind working with damp fabric, you can run the wires through while it's damp. Or, if you don't like it either, you can totally get it wet with the wires [...]

This...this is mostly here because it has a certain low budget space princess vibe that amuses me. But it is a good chance to take a moment and see how different fabric looks when it's under tension. Compare it to how it looked before. In the first picture, you've got the cowl with one wire at the bottom and another at the top. It's not actually blocked yet! If you take the wires out it will sproing right back. And in the second, you've got how it looked without the wires. Look at the difference in the edges (curled up [...]

Next step, do pretty much the exact same thing up top. This really is exactly the same process as at the bottom, so I'll just sort of vaguely gesture at the previous post and assume you can handle it.  Just pick your point, run your wire through, work your way around, and stretch it out. Don't be afraid to fiddle with the wire to adjust how much tension it's putting on your fabric. And remember you can stick a binder clip on the wire if the fabric is pushing back and making your circle close up too much. But the [...]

So, to block a cowl, I start by threading my blocking wire through the bottom of the cowl. I pick a landmark in the stitch pattern and bring my wire through that spot, all the way around the cowl. I'm bringing the wire through the same point in each pattern repeat. I picked a point that would emphasize that lovely rippled edge.  On this pattern, I mark on the chart where I recommend you do that. But if you're using this on a pattern that doesn't do that, just find a point you can identify (like 'just to the side [...]

One of the things I'm trying to show you here is how blocking changes fabric, so let's start out by really looking at the fabric fresh off the needles. This is how it looks flat. Notice that the top and bottom edge are sort of rolled and a little wavy. Notice how the hole in the lace are a little uneven. Notice how the fabric is a little crumpled.  This doesn't mean you did anything wrong! This is just what lace looks like before it's blocked. It's totally 100% absolutely normal. And this is how it looks on the dressform.  [...]