Sunday, September 13, 2009

Nearly done! (picture heavy)

You've seen her before, in her humble beginning and in the tricky cast-off-cable stage: it's Jeanie! Having finally grafted the four cables to each other and weaved in all the ends, it's time for the finishing touch...
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So this was my starting point. A long, thin strip of knitware... You can see the shawl widening in the ends, because the cable running around the edge shouldn't stretch as much as the rest when blocked, so in its unblocked state it looks too big. At this point she measures about 50 cm by 180 cm - I forgot to write down the measurements, of course, but I think that's just about right.
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She's not looking too bad, I'm really quite proud of myself! But the pattern doesn't show well when she's draped around my shoulders. And there was that stretching effect on the short sides I mentioned earlier. So it was time for yet another thing I've never done before: blocking!
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Soaking...
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Getting started...
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After 50 minutes, 122 pins and one sore back, there she is! I know, I know, the edges are hardly straight... I went back and adjusted some of the pins after taking the picture. Bear with me, it was my first time doing anything like this. In this stage she measures 70cm by 270cm! Oh wow, she stretched much more lenghtwise than what I had expected. She'd better shrink down a bit that way when dry... I was hoping to make her wider, but couldn't stretch her more without bending the pins or worrying about damaging the yarn.
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In her stretched state the pattern is extremely visible! Pictures of her all done and gorgeous (hopefully) are due in a day or two, for now she has to rest and dry completely. We'll be back. ;)
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