A big thanks to Cascade Yarns for providing the yarn and to Flying Squid Studio for providing the final photos for this Crochet-Along.

Welcome to the Kram Cardi Crochet-Along! If you are just joining us be sure to check out THIS POST first for sizing information supply list.

PDF Purchasing Information

If you’d like to purchase the Kram Cardi PDF you can do so by clicking below. This is NOT required as all the information, additional instructions and extra photos will be located on the blog. In other words, the PDF is the pattern ONLY. The PDF may come in handy if you’d like to print off the pattern without all the ads and photos. [product id=8025]

Week 5 (Part 1): Blocking

Welcome back! If you’re all caught up you should have all your pieces done. Woo hoo! Now, we just need to block and sew it together and we’ll have a beautiful cardigan. Today’s post will cover blocking and I’ll have the sewing post up tomorrow.

What You’ll Need this Week

• Obviously, your crocheted pieces.
• A large bowl/tub.
  • You could even use your sink. Just be sure to clean it out really well before hand.
• Wool wash.
  • It’s best to use a non rinse soap.
• A large towel
• A blocking surface
  • I’m using some foam flooring mats. You could lay towels on the floor, use a spare mattress…something you can pin into.
• Pins
  • I’m also using Knitter’s Pride’s Knit Blockers
• A tape measure
• Your schematic

Hopefully you followed my advise and tested your blocking method on your gauge swatch. If you did you should have a pretty good idea of what we’re about to do

There’s a bit of a debate weather you should weave in you ends first. I don’t. It’s really just a preference thing. I’ve done it both ways and don’t really see a benefit either way.

The first thing we need to do it wash our pieces. If you’re like me you’ve been carrying this project around with you for the last few weeks. Eating and drinking by it and your kids and or pets have probably been around too. It could use a good washing!

Fill your bowl (or tub or sink) with some tepid water and a small amount of your soap.

Add your pieces to the bowl. I started with just my body piece and did my sleeves separately but you could do it all at once.

Gently swish the pieces around just enough to submerge them. Let this sit for at least 20 minutes.

While you’re waiting here’s something cute. My son (4) has seen me do this before but never really asked about it. When I was doing the sleeves (and some other projects) he got up on the table and said, “Your yarn is in this bowl!?” I said, “Yes…” “Are we having yarn for dinner!?”

OK, enough cuteness. When the 20 minutes is up gently squeeze (do NOT twist) out as much water as you can.

At this point IF you have a top load washer you could put the pieces in on the spin cycle only. I do not have one so I use a towel.

Lay the pieces out on your towel (it doesn’t have to be neat).

Roll up the towel and squeeze out as much water as you can.

This might seem weird but trust me it works! You can move your rolled up towel on the floor and stand on it to get more water out.

Once you’ve got most of the water out but it’s still slightly damp you can get ready to start pinning. Can you spot the baby photobomb? Hehe.

Basically, you need to pin the pieces out according to the measurements on the schematic. If you have blocking boards with a grid on them that’s awesome because you can use the grid lines as a guide to keep every thing square. Mine does not have a grid so I use the edges as a guide. I like to start at the bottom. Using my tape measure I pin it to match the schematic.

Then I pin all the other corners and fill in the spaces. Once it’s all pinned I like to double check all the measurements just to be sure.

Here’s a photo of my sleeves pinned out.
Note: I added my trim later as a last minute design element so that’s why you don’t see it in the photo.

Now we get to wait while this dries. I’m impatient so I like to set up a fan (or two) blowing on the pieces to speed up the drying. Mine took over night to dry. If it’s really humid it might take 24 hours. Here they are all blocked and ready to sew together. Don’t they look nice!?

Like I said I’ll have the sewing post up tomorrow. I’ll also have the giveaway up for the Cascade yarn giveaway. See you then!