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Spray Blocking

Today I want to write about spray blocking which refers to pinning the project in place to the dimensions mentioned in the pattern, lightly spraying it with water and letting it dry.

As you can imagine this is a very gentle method and is most often used with delicate yarns like cashmere, silk or blends using them.  Or if you just aren't sure what type of fibre is in the yarn this type of blocking would be a safe bet.  In addition spray blocking is used when the yarn, because of what it is made of, should not be completely saturated with water, either because it will disintegrate or because it will diminish a special feature of that yarn.  Mohair and specialty/novelty yarns like eyelash are examples of the latter.



Here's a cowl inspired by a recent visit to a downtown yarn shop. The shop had made up this Churchmouse pattern called Crocheted Moebius Cowl Pattern.  It has a very ethereal quality because of the mohair yarn used; the cowl weighs virtually nothing.  I thought I could knit a similar scarf using some mohair I have in my own stash.  Although my end product isn't quite as light weight a the Churchmouse cowl, it remains very easy to wear.


So here's my version just off the needles.  I used the stockinette stitch which is well known for its ability to curl around the edges.  You have to admit it doesn't look like much of anything at this point.  And because I do want the long hairiness of the mohair to remain (even though the label says the yarn is completely submersible in water), I used the spray blocking technique.

Step 1 is pulling together the blocking mat, towel and stainless steel pins.
The blocking mat and towel for next steps

Step 2 is unfurling the curls in the cowl to the width I want and pinning the cowl in place.
The towel is covering the bright coloured plastic and the pins are holding everything in place.

Step 3 is spraying it and giving it time to dry.

Here the cowl is all wet on one side drying

Since the cowl is double sided I will have to do this twice.  Once it is dry I'll show it with the toque and the acrylic piece I steam blocked.



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