Blocking ideas?

Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!

+++++++++++++

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This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%.
Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

In article , Wooly
wrote:

Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!


Wooly peg it out on a clean sheet on your lawn. With the hot weather that
should work. Cover it with another sheet so no birds can build nests in
it, or cats can roll around on it Use double pointed knitting needles to
peg it down with

Els

--
Ja for Jazz and cobra loose the rrrrrrrr

"Wooly" wrote in message
...
Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!


If you have a spare bedroom with wall to wall carpet pin it out on the
floor. If not, find a cheap source for carpet padding, tape it to a wall and
block on it.
DA

Wooly wrote:
Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!

+++++++++++++

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET.
This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%.
Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

An old fashioned quilting rack? Frances

Wooly wrote:
Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!

+++++++++++++

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET.
This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%.
Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

An old fashioned quilting rack? Frances

I read somewhere that Knitting Fairies never have to block the finished
items. But being a mere mortal knitter, the three options that I would
consider a

1. I might build a frame from 1/2" PVC pipe. The 10' sticks are about $2
each and the elbows are about $0.50 each. You would need a X in the center
to brace it so it would be $12 for pipe and $4.50 for fittings. I also use
that stuff for my irrigation system, so I would call it a "garden cost"
instead of a "knitting cost" to get it past my wife.

2. There is a big grove of bamboo along one of the trails that I go running
on. I might cut a few stalks of bamboo and lash-up a frame with a bit of
wire. I like that grove, half the garden is staked up with that bamboo.

3. I remember an account of women laying an old sail on the ground in the
sun, pounding stakes in around the perimeter, running a cord tightly between
the stakes, and then blocking a shawl by running yarns out to the cord
around the perimeter. The had a second sail that they laid over the shawl
when rain squalls blew up. There was a picture, and it looked like a nice
piece of lace. They seemed to know what they were doing.

If I had a piece of wet lace sitting in front of me and I wanted to get it
out in sun so it would be dry by the time my wife gets home, I would go
with # 2.

Aaron


"Wooly" wrote in message
...
Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!

+++++++++++++

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET.
This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%.
Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

In article ,
Wooly wrote:
Well, I've done it to myself this time.

The Jaggerspun shawl is too big for my hillbilly PVC blocking frame.
It is also too big for me to handle by myself. I'm bribing a friend
to come over next week to help me string it up, but what on earth can
I use as the blocking frame?

PS -- when it's finished blocking the thing will have an approximate
9' wingspan and be more than 4' down the center back. No damned
wonder it took 2+ balls of Jaggerspun!

I realize this is heresy, but could you fold it in half and block it
as a double layer? The middle might be a little funky but since the
whole thing is supposed to be stretched out, it might work.

Or only dampen and block half of it at a time? Same thing with the
middle but you only have one layer to get dry.

=Tamar

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:21:42 GMT, Wooly spewed forth :

Yesterday a friend came over and helped me block. We ran a string
through the top edge of the shawl and lashed it to a piece of PVC hung
on brackets between two porch posts.

Then we started pulling out the points, which we lashed to more PVC.
The PVC for the lower edges had to be kludged into the correct angles,
then tied to the porch posts, then we had to go back and adjust the
points.

When the shawl was tied out I sprayed it wiith the hose (horror of
horrors, but I scoured it and boiled the heck out of it to set the dye
on Thursday when I thought I could block it out myself).

It's still humid as hell but hopefully the shawl will be dry today.
Or tomorrow. Or maybe Monday...

+++++++++++++

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET.
This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%.
Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

In article , Wooly
wrote:

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:21:42 GMT, Wooly spewed forth :

Yesterday a friend came over and helped me block. We ran a string
through the top edge of the shawl and lashed it to a piece of PVC hung
on brackets between two porch posts.

Then we started pulling out the points, which we lashed to more PVC.
The PVC for the lower edges had to be kludged into the correct angles,
then tied to the porch posts, then we had to go back and adjust the
points.

When the shawl was tied out I sprayed it wiith the hose (horror of
horrors, but I scoured it and boiled the heck out of it to set the dye
on Thursday when I thought I could block it out myself).

It's still humid as hell but hopefully the shawl will be dry today.
Or tomorrow. Or maybe Monday...


Well done, and very creatively at that. I hope to see pictures of the
blocking as, describe above, as well as when you are modeling it.

Els

--
Ja for Jazz and cobra loose the rrrrrrrr