Good morning! We had just enough milk in the house to put in my tea, or it wouldn’t have been so good.
This afternoon I will block and stretch my shawl. Blocking in #fiberarts means using steam or water to help make the fabric sit right. In #knitting, this often means just getting it wet and laying it flat to dry, but when it’s lace, it often means stretching it out with pins and wire while it’s wet so all the lacy holes open up and the pattern is visible even after it dries.
When I was partway through knitting this shawl, I blocked it on the needles because there was something I needed to know. Now it’s an excellent before-and-after illustration of the value of stretching lace out when blocking. Both parts are the same stitch pattern.
(Or it *was* a good example. It’s soaking in the bathtub. I’m about to stretch the whole thing out on the bed with wires and pins and point a fan at it so it will be dry by bedtime.)
