Killing Comfort

March 3, 2008, springplum, Knitting, , 1

I finished my swatch and steam blocked, or “killed”, it last night. Had to be very careful with the heat because nylon and acrylic have such low melting points. Before:

VoyagerS Before

I washed, salad-spun, and pinned it out onto a really old 100% cotton dishcloth that I didn’t care about in case the swatch did indeed melt onto it. My husband loves me very much, but I did not want to test the bonds of matrimony by melting turquoise yarn onto our carpet in the name of science.

VoyagerS Pinned

I then laid another nasty elderly dishcloth that I had soaked in water and spun the excess moisture out of over the pinned swatch. The iron was turned to one above acrylic (polyester, I believe) since this was supposed to kill it, not iron it. Next time, I may go one higher. I set the iron on top of the swatch and pressed down but did not move the iron back and forth.

VoyagerS Steaming

I stopped when the cloth above was nearly but not quite dry, checking often to make sure the swatch was beginning to get sticky or melty. As you can see below, the stitches opened up like in standard lace blocking and the yarn has a very soft drape. Before blocking the swatch was 6″ x 4.5″ and after it was 6.5″ x 4.75″. My only complaint is that the knit stitches on the edges of the hearts look smooshed.

VoyagerS After