Blocking 2

I've been doing a bit of blocking this week and it's thrown up a few questions, so I thought I'd experiment to find the answers.

 I've just finished making myself the 'Eleganza' sweater from Dora Ohrenstein's 'Custom Crochet Sweater Book'. Blocking turned this garment from a bit Ugh! to a very flattering A-line design. So my question here is will I need to block this garment next time it's washed or will it keep this shape if I treat it with respect and dry it flat?

 (Yes I know you need sunglasses for this one!) This was my attempt at Jen Tyler's Equinox in acrylic. It needed quite alot of blocking, in fact I blocked it to 18 inches, but when I took the pins out it popped itself down to 17 inches. So once again I want to know how washing will affect this. But also I want to know if it's just acrylic that retains that amount of spring? Or perhaps how controllable is the blocking process? What happens when I wash it again?

My experiments won't be exactly scientific because that would be boring!! I've taken five yarns which each have different properties. And I'm using three different blocking methods.

  These seem to be the rules:

✸Man made fibres should be wet or cold blocked.

(Cold blocking means pinning and then spraying with water so that it's damp rather than soaking wet.)

✸Plant fibres should be wet blocked.

✸Animal fibres should be steam blocked.

(Pin out your work and then steam holding the iron no closer than 2.5cm/1".)

I'm using designs from Margaret Hubert's The granny Square Book. It's my experience that these designs work better after blocking. The cotton square uses the horizontal puff stitches we look at in a previous post.

 Here's my experiment then. After crocheting my squares I measured them. As you can see from the image above they are twisting all over the place. They definitely needed blocking.

 I blocked each one according to it's fibre content and measured it's size while pinned out. When they were dry I unpinned them and measured again.

Finally I washed them all using 'Soak'

a no-rinse washing solution; squeezed but didn't wring them out, rolled them in a clean towel to remove excess water and dried them flat.

Here are my results for you in a little table.

 As you can see, after unpinning all of the samples instantly shrank and after the second wash they mostly returned to their original size.

So what's the point of blocking? Well...all of my samples are now a better more even shape, with sharp corners which they have retained even after the extra wash. If I had been joining together a number of blocks, or the back and front of a sweater it would have ensured that the overall finish was neat and even. I am confident that if I wash my Equinox square again it will retain the same shape it has now. As for my Eleganza sweater? That is still a mystery! But I do have this handy gauge swatch that I made before I started it, so I'm off to experiment with that!

See you in a fortnight for some more mad musings from the crochet obsessed!!

Crochet Tips: Buttonholes

My last post led me to thinking about buttonholes so here is my mini guide. I've made some diagrams so I hope that most of my examples are self explanatory. So often in patterns I've seen buttons stuck through any old hole in the fabric, and yet button bands are so easy to do.

 I'm assuming that most of the time you will be working a button band. The very easiest way is to make a band of Double Crochet stitches (SC-USA) so that the holes will stand vertically. To make the 'hole' you simply chain a few stitches skipping the same number of stitches in the previous row. In the next row you work into the chain stitches. Here's the diagram...

 And here's what it looks like...

It might be a good time to point out that due to the stretchy nature of the crochet fabric it's always a good idea to make the holes smaller than you think they need to be! Heavy buttons can distort the fabric so they're best avoided.

The next example is made a little bit more interesting by using Half Treble Stitches (HDC-USA).

Here's what it looks like...

Remember my Janelle cardigan using Linked Stitches? I added a button band to it using Double Crochet worked into the back bump of the previous rows. (You have to work the stitches from the right side of the fabric only, so don't turn!)
   Here's the diagram...

And here's what it looks like as a swatch...

Let's get a bit fancier. I used this when making a ribbed button band. Please be aware that because you are using taller stitches the button hole will be bigger. (Yes - you know I made my button holes too big!)

 Here's the swatch...

Perhaps you want something a bit more exciting. This one looks a bit fancier.

Here's the swatch...

The next one is more of a button loop than a hole!

Here it is...

My last example is going to require some explanation. Perhaps you want your button hole to lie horizontally in a band? Or you would like to make a vertical hole in the fabric and not add an additional band at all?

The explanation is a bit like a dot-to-dot picture. When you are at the point where you would like the button hole to be, you work the fabric on one side of the hole, ie follow arrows 2,3 and 4. At the top of the hole, slip stitch down the edge of the rows you have just made, arrow 5. Now you can make the fabric to the other side of the button hole, ie follow arrows 6,7,and 8. (I used chain stitches at the start of each row but left them out of the diagram as it would have been way too confusing!)

Once you've made all the buttonholes you go back along the top, Row9.

I hope these examples have given you a starting point and have inspired you to create some really stunning button holes!