Sunday, June 18, 2006

It's blocking

I picked up a 40 x 60 inch piece of foam board, which, of course, did not fit in my car. So I had to put it in the trunk, and then, of course, I didn't have anything to tie down the trunk. So I found a large plastic sack stuffed away, ripped it open, managed to feed it through the latch on the top of the trunk and tie it to the matching latch on the inside of the trunk.

I drove home with the trunk more or less open, but at least the plastic tie held it somewhat, and I was able to take side streets.

The colors ran quite a bit when I soaked the shawl, even with vinegar. Then I rolled it in towels and laid it out on the foam board.

I've never made a shawl before, so I now see the advantage of buying blocking wires to keep the straight edge of the shawl straight. As a substitute, I thread dental floss through the eyelets along the top edge using a double-pointed needle that also has an eye on one end and pulled it tight. Then I tried to pin the edge without making too many bumps. The scalloped edges are easier, although it's difficult to stop re-pinning to make the scallops as symmetrical as possible. I was still re-pinning after I took this picture.


I knitted three extra repeats of the main pattern for ten repeats total. The Flower Basket shawl is still slightly smaller than the dimensions suggested. It will be more of a scarf/shawl than a shawl to wrap up in. The dimensions are about 55 inches across the top edge and just over 26 inches from the top edge to the bottom point.


More pictures when the shawl is dry!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful shawl! And I can relate to the foam core board story - my eyes are always bigger than my trunk, too. But it looks like it was worth the effort to get it home!

Janice Bakke said...

Thank you, Julia! The first thing I thought when I was looking for something to tie down the trunk was, "If I were on my bike, I would have bungee cords with me." Except I can't quite imagine transporting the board on my bike! Maybe if I had Wide Load Ahead vehicle accompanying me.

Congrats. on finishing Chap. 3. I hope your meeting this week is helpful and that the rewrite will be quick.