How to block a big lace shawl?

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie on September 17, 2008 at 10:17am

I know you will laugh at this one but this is how I block my shawls. I put an old quilt on the hood of my old car (obviously it is not in working right now, a repair job my husband has said he will get to one day) and use the long quilting straight pins with yellow plastic tips to pin it out. Because I do not use the car I can let the shawl dry there for about 1 day and it looks great when I take it off. May want to think about this when you know you have a 24 hr period where you do not need your car. I did want to use the top of my dryer but it is not big enough. The car hood works great.

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Permalink Reply by cindyward on September 18, 2008 at 8:18pm

Hmm ... perhaps I should have let my husband keep his "driveway ornament"? LOL!

Is your old car in the garage or do you do your blocking outside? We don't have room in our garage for a car - there's just too much junk in there ... sigh ... Cindy

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie on September 19, 2008 at 7:17am

It is in the garage. Sorry you cannot use this idea. Know what you mean abou too much t junk in the garage. Felt that my old car was part of the junk until I started blocking my shawls on it.

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Permalink Reply by Alison Jeppson Hyde on September 17, 2008 at 2:10pm

You can safely spin the water out in a washing machine without felting the yarn or otherwise causing damage *if* the water is turned off and doesn't spray during the spin cycle. That would get a lot of extra water out, and if you do that and then block it first thing in the morning on the bed, it should be dry by bedtime. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by V.Uknits on September 21, 2008 at 10:12pm

I just block it on my bed. What i do is i block the garment out dry...then i just use my clothing steamer.

Its done in about 10 minutes...if you minus the pinning time. And the bed dries in like 5 minutes after that.

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Permalink Reply by Shar1ford on September 26, 2008 at 8:09pm

I just finished a shawl from this wonderful book and have communicated with the wonderful author. I figured the only thing I had big enough was my floor. I laid out several towels, spread out my shawl across the towels, used long quilting pins with the yellow flowers at the end to pin the edges of the shawl to the towels, sprayed the shawl, covered it with more towels, then put every book I own on top of the towels for about a week. It did a great job and the shawl looks beautiful!!!

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Permalink Reply by cartom on January 23, 2009 at 2:24pm

I took a shawl class last July. The instructor suggested getting the "puzzle" foam pads that people use on their floors for cushioning. I think you can by them separately or in sets. They can be changed into different configurations. She put these together to the size she needed & then used T-pins and long pieces of welding wire which she purchased from a welding supply store. I haven't tried it, but her shawls were gorgeous & shaped nicely. Caren

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Permalink Reply by Richard J Guay on April 27, 2009 at 10:29am

I hope this works for all of you.

Please go to the hardware store and buy a foil back insolation board 4 foot by 8 foot 2 inches thick.

You can pin the shawl or larger pieces to the foil faced side and being wet does not hurt it and can be placed where space is availble. Plus it can be steamed and put away until the next project.

My wife had the same problem and this works.Amazing what you can find and make do. A big plus it is cheaper than blocker boards. Good Luck

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