Blocking Procrastination

Ah, yes. Blocking. The important final step in so many knitted projects, especially lace. My friend keeps telling me, "Until it's blocked, it's not finished."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. She has 1 kid. I have 3. She has a kitty who doesn't mess with her knitting. I have 2 that will catnap whatever I have and run away with it, destroying it in the process. She can use her living room floor to block. I have to use a room I can block off from both kids and cats. Considering that's the kids' playroom, I don't block very often. It's hard to convince the kids to clean it up (read "impossible") and I look in there and walk right back out again. She says, "Use your bed." I say, "I'm a little worried as it's a Sleep Number. What if I puncture the air bladder with the T-pins?"

Yeah, okay. I can come up with any number of excuses not to block. However, I did get a lot of fun things for Mother's Day. Basically, I order what I want and call it my gift. lol This year, I got some yarn, a ball winder (I love it!!), and blocking wires. I have also decided to go ahead and use my bed for my blocking board. I'm pretty sure, now, that the T-pins can't reach the air bladders. We took advantage of Sleep Number's major sale and got one of their premium beds for the same price as the one we were looking at and it has a much thicker top mattress than the other one did. I don't exactly push the T-pins all the way down anyway.

So, I have two shawls waiting for blocking and another one quickly racing towards finished stages. I'm still knitting it, but I'm almost to the stockinette stage that forms the end of the pattern. It's done using short rows, so this should be interesting. I'll probably start blocking... tomorrow. :-D Today, I'm way too tired to mess with it. Though, if I get up from my nap early enough, I might set something up. Both shawls awaiting blocking are heavier than normal lace weight. I can't quite remember the yarn weights, but DK weight is coming to mind. The newest shawl approaching "finish" is fingering weight. I'd hate to have a wet bed when I go to bed tonight.

Well, I guess I'm going to head off to see how it will work to use my bed. We'll see if it's to take a nap or block. ;-)