The situation – you have finished knitting, seaming, and weaving in the ends. Now you’re ready to block the piece, which will transform your caterpillar knitting into a beautiful butterfly. This is also how you will hand wash your knitting every time it needs it.

Before we start, are you working with multiple yarn colors? Stripes, borders, fair isle, etc? If so, there is a chance that the dyes will bleed when they get wet, so you want to set the dyes before you follow the instructions below. Fill the sink with cold water and about a cup of white vinegar. Soak your knitting for about a half-hour, and rinse to get out the pickle smell. You can move on to blocking while it’s still wet, no prob.

Step 1:

Clean sink.

Step 2:

Fill with lukewarm water and add wool wash. I prefer the wool washes that don’t require rinsing, like Eucalan or Soak.

Step 3:

Send your knitting for a swim. Give it a few good squeezes to work the wool wash into the fibers.

Step 4:

Go find something else to do for a half-hour or so while it soaks.

Step 5:

Drain the sink, and gently squeeze out the excess water.

Step 6:

Spread an old towel out on the floor. (I recommend an old towel, because there still may be some color bleeding.) Gently lay the knitted piece out on the towel, being careful not to allow the weight of the piece to stretch it out while it’s wet and heavy.

Step 7:

Roll-up your knitting inside the towel like a burrito.

Step 8:

Step all over it. Give it a quarter turn, step all over it again. This is a way of squishing out the extra water without wringing. Note: do not do this in stocking feet. Ask me how I know this.*

Step 9:

Blocking boards are awesome, but not totally necessary. Find a place for your knitting to dry WHERE YOUR PETS CANNOT GO. That’s the only steadfast rule. You can ask me how I know this tidbit, too.** Spread out your knitting to measurements, and pin if necessary. Bonus if there is a ceiling fan in the room.

The piece will dry exactly as you shape it, so be sure to square-out the corners and smooth the stitches. If you’re blocking something that is double-thick (like a sweater), flip it over once the top side is dry.

More notes:
- Since you, my friend, are a careful and smart knitter, you knit and blocked a swatch before you started knitting, right? That means there won’t be any nasty surprises like out-of-control stretching when the piece gets wet. Good for you!
- I have found superwash wool to be the most unpredictable fiber when it comes to blocking. Be SURE to block your swatch.
- These instructions are primarily for wool, but you can use them to block any fiber.
- Like I said, you’ll use these instructions every time you hand wash your knitting, which sounds like a lot of work. The truth is, wool doesn’t need washing all that often. I live in a warm climate, and I really only wash my wool sweaters once at the end of the cold season every year.

*I’ve ended up with wet socks more than once while stepping all over the towel burrito.
**When dogs and cats smell wet wool, they will be convinced that there is a rain-soaked sheep in the house. They will dig through your wet knitting, trying to find this tiny sheep.

If you’ve never worked (or heard of) Tunisian crochet, take a look! It’s really simple to do, and there are several resources on the internet to get you going. (Lots of YouTube videos.)

Tunisian crochet is an awesome technique that my family has used for generations, but I have found that there is little known about it with fiber people nowadays. In my family, we have always called it “the afghan stitch”. It works up like a cross between knitting and crochet. Tunisian crochet hooks are long (10” or more), and stitches are held on the hook much like a knitting needle. To compare it further to knitting, it is sort of like picking up and binding-off stitches every row.

I am in love with the fabric that is created with Tunisian Crochet. It is a plain fabric that can be compared to Stockinette Stitch in its simplicity, but it is flat and does not curl like Stockinette. Also, the stitches are perfect little squares with holes at the four corners, which nicely accommodate cross stitch designs.

This pattern makes a proportionally-accurate Texas State Flag, which just happens to be proportionally-accurate for a crib blanket as well. The size can be modified by changing the yarn or hook size for a bigger or smaller blanket.

Details –
Size: 60” x 40”
Yarn: 3 hanks each Cascade 220 (or any worsted-weight yarn) in:
• White
• Ruby
• Stratosphere
Hook: Tunisian crochet hook in size 10/J, or size to obtain gauge
Additional Tools: row counter (optional), tapestry needle

Pattern is $4.00 via PayPal.

Anyway, just a note to let you know that I fixed the comments. I didn’t realize there was anything wrong (other than the fact that you folks strangely stopped leaving comments) until I was told that leaving a comment required logging in. Boo! It must have happened when I updated Wordpress months ago, but I didn’t notice.

But now it’s fixed! So now you can discuss how bad my dogs are in the video below.

xo
S t a c i

Here’s the story…bedtime is usually a very calm and quiet routine at my house. The dogs are always sacked-out by 8pm, and when I’m ready for bed I take their collars and turn off the lights in the house. Then they follow me into my bedroom to continue sleeping. Calm.

I made a mistake last week that upset this applecart. Abe was being silly at bedtime, and he tried to get Tippy to play with him. I thought it was cute and funny, so I very foolishly encouraged the behavior by roughhousing a bit with Abe. Tippy and Ike joined in, and it became a complete circus. A totally fun circus, yes, but a very bad idea at bedtime.

So this is what I’m left with. Three dogs that have adopted a new bedtime routine that includes behaving like crazed monkeys. Enjoy my pain in HD quality.

Fingerless GLOVES, not mittens – don’t be fooled! Fingerless gloves are a much better fit. They lovingly wrap and cuddle each finger, so that there is no unfortunate gaping around the hand.

There are some tricky bits to gloves, so I’ve made this pattern available two ways – either as a pattern with instructional videos, or as a pattern only. For these gloves you’ll need about 200 yards of worsted-weight yarn (in stripes colors of your choosing) and size US 7 double-pointed needles.

The pattern + links to five instructional videos is $8.00 via PayPal.

The pattern alone is $3.00 via PayPal.

Here is the first video of the instructional series, as a preview:

Intimated by the twists and turns of traditional Irish Fisherman knitting? This shawl is a good place to start learning how to manage a cable needle and read the charts.

This pattern is available two ways – either as a pattern with instructional videos, or as a pattern only. You’ll need about 600 yards of worsted- or aran-weight wool and size US 7 needles.

The pattern + links to five instructional videos is $8.00 via PayPal.

The pattern alone is $3.00 via PayPal.

Here is the introduction to the instructional videos. Man, I wish I could capture a better still than this, I look very goofy.

I gave myself a couple of weeks without taking photos, then on December 31, 2008 I started a new project. I still took a photo everyday and posted it to flickr, but they didn’t have to be selfies this time. Any ol’ photo would do.

I did well on this project for a while, then I lost my mojo. I would miss days at a time, then post photos I wasn’t really proud of. On December 6th of last year, 324 days into the project, I hit ‘Pause’. I didn’t give up on the project, but I decided to allow myself some time to get my mojo back.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, time passed. I didn’t think much about photos at all, and I even found it difficult to remember to pull out my camera for important things! How easy it was to get out of the habit. Then, a few weeks ago, I found myself sort of sad that I didn’t take many photos anymore. I actually caught myself thinking this: I wish I had a reason to MAKE myself take photos again.

DUH, Staci! Dummy! You paused your photo project! Hit ‘PLAY’!

So I did. I’m only a few days into resuming the project, but the mojo is there. I’m enjoying it again, and even working to understand more elements of photography and light. Someday I might make the brave move to change my camera settings to something other than “auto”.

Magic loop knitting is a way of knitting socks (or any tiny tube) with a long circular needle instead of double-pointed needles.

In this pattern you will see links to seven instructional videos that will explain each section in detail, and help get you through the tricky parts. All you need is less than 200 yards of worsted-weight yarn and size US 5 circular needle with at least a 24″ cord. (A longer cord is even better.)

This pattern is for a worsted-weight anklet sock. We’re using heavier yarn and bigger needles than most knitted socks, so that you can quickly learn and work through the elements of Magic Loop sock knitting. The techniques you learn here will set you up for working with all kinds of other sock patterns.

Videos + pattern are $8.00 via PayPal