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September 4, 2011

From Susan — Parents of Invention

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:58 am

If necessity is the mother of invention, then sheer laziness must be the father!  I have always found that my ingenuity is spurred on by work avoidance.   This recent instance is one of my lazier better examples.

I just finished two Damson Shawlettes — one for a shop sample and one for the annual charity auction at my work. 


My original Damson, plus the two new, unblocked ones

For some reason, I thought it made sense to block them at the same time.  After all, I have two pieces of styrofoam for blocking and lots of pins.  The first one went okay — putzy and boring, but okay.  Then I started the second one.  I had run out of steam and it wasn’t shaping up very well.  I thought of just setting it aside for another day, but it was wet and I wanted it to be done

Then the ‘lazy lightbulb’ Light bulbwent on!!  The Damsons were made of the same type of yarn, same number of repeats, same size.  Would it work to just double them up and put the second Damson over the first and use the pins as pegs?  It worked like a charm and took a tenth of the time:

Here you can see the two stacked up:

Here are the Damson Twins after blocking:


Damson Modified in Malabrigo Sock “Abril”


Damson Modified in Malabrigo Sock “Rayon Vert”

As you can see, I used the open mesh modification for my Double Damsons, which I prefer.  I love this pattern and LOVE the mesh version.  I stopped a few rows early because of fear that I would run out of yarn, but I do think I could have gone the distance — I have a fair amount of yarn left over.  Ravelry Project Page.

So, this was a great and successful blocking solution 🙂 with very little application in other situations 🙁 .

PS: Rox mentioned a couple of possible applications: You could block sleeves this way, couldn’t you?  And maybe the back and front of a sweater, too? 

I always use blocking wires instead of pins to block sleeves and sweater pieces, but this might help those of you who use pins.  It will take longer to dry, but it might be worth it (?).

12 Comments »

  1. You are so clever and efficient! I would never have thought that’s laziness!

    Comment by Christine — September 4, 2011 @ 12:25 pm

  2. I dunno. You could block sleeves this way, couldn’t you? And maybe the back and front of a sweater, too?

    Comment by Rox — September 4, 2011 @ 12:34 pm

  3. It’s brilliant.

    Comment by Gale — September 4, 2011 @ 1:31 pm

  4. Ahhh – that’s the sort of non-money making bright idea I often have! 🙂

    Brilliant!!!!

    Comment by Soo — September 4, 2011 @ 1:47 pm

  5. You guys have added more items to my queue than anyone else…and I guess Damson will have to go on it too. Very nice.

    And, if I might recommend checking out my post “Don’t be a Blockhead”, you may get another idea about how to save time blocking, though doubling things up really was genius!

    Comment by twinsetjan — September 4, 2011 @ 5:12 pm

  6. I suppose it would help if I included the permalink to “Don’t be a Blockhead” — http://twinset.us/?p=4283

    Comment by twinsetjan — September 4, 2011 @ 5:13 pm

  7. Gorgeous shawlettes, and great idea! I have done sleeves that way, just to make sure they matched, but I’m not sure I would have thought of twin shawls.

    Comment by twinsetellen — September 4, 2011 @ 10:26 pm

  8. The only drawback I can think of for doing sleeves this way would be the rare time that the armscyes and/or caps are shaped differently vis a vis front & back, as in sewing patterns.

    Comment by Suzan — September 5, 2011 @ 8:10 am

  9. I think it’s a great idea. And when the sleeves are shaped differently for front and back, couldn’t you just turn one over and block them back to back? That way the different sides would match up, since they’d be a mirror-image instead of completely different.

    Beautiful work, as always!

    Comment by Lisle — September 6, 2011 @ 6:18 am

  10. Yes, I do the same thing all the time. It works very well and pieces match perfectly.

    Comment by Linda — September 6, 2011 @ 11:41 am

  11. Ohh, lovely Damsons! You’re definitely getting me excited to cast on for it soon! I have the Rayon Vert in Malabrigo Sock, which I had been planning to use for this–now I can see how fabulous it will look. I wasn’t aware of the mesh modification–thanks for the heads up!

    Comment by Misty — September 6, 2011 @ 9:21 pm

  12. So pretty! I love the idea of blocking them together — very MacGyver. I do something like this with rectangular scarves — I fold them in half to make blocking more manageable.

    Comment by Jodi — September 7, 2011 @ 6:07 pm

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