… is my third favorite “step” towards finishing a prototype, casting on and binding off being the first two favorites, of course. Sometimes there is a long time interval between binding off and blocking, due to several reasons. This adds to the suspense and to the pleasure after blocking, as the element of surprise takes over and the shawl (in this case) is fully revealed in all its splendor…

It ‘s been two months since I bound off Vivari Shawl (click on the link to take you to the pattern on Ravelry), but for the reasons you all know, I didn’t have the time to soak and stretch my precious, “crazy” leftovers’ challenge… up to this morning, when I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day and decided to turn this into “Blocking Friday” and block as many of my finished knits as possible. Yes, there were four of them. Well, I soaked them well, one by one, in lukewarm water, then rolled and wrapped them each in its own towel and, finally stretched and pinned them practically everywhere: on the dining room table, on our (queen size) bed, on the kitchen table…

I used my Prym wiring blocks and pins to pin them into shape and (as always) a dry towel on the board surface; I find they dry up much sooner this way. I will only reveal pictures of Vivari today, but you can expect to see more pictures of more projects in the days to come. So, what is your favorite way of blocking your knits? Do you soak them before or just use steam iron? How do you stretch them or don’t you? Hit the COMMENT button below to tell us all about it…Can’t wait to read how you do it!