Stretched to the limit

Had some fun yesterday blocking outside, using the deck railing and patio furniture for support. Let me explain...

The afghan which I finished knitting over a month ago was sitting in the living room waiting for blocking. Now I'm used to blocking using blue Styrofoam sheets, blocking wires and lots of pins, but this afghan was just too big. Plus even if I did have enough Styrofoam sheets (though I found two more in the attic a month ago...), there is nowhere in my small house that I could lay it out. I'm expecting company again in a couple of days, so the family room and guest room were off limits. At first I thought I just might skip blocking...but I knew that the feather and fan pattern stitch, like all lace patterns, would not look great until it was blocked.

So, lacking inside space, I looked to the outdoors. In good weather I let all my knitting air dry outside on my deck. The weather had been clear, so I thought, why not. I also remembered that there was a technique called string blocking, also called frame blocking, in which shawls are strung on string and stretched on a frame. I decided to approximate this technique, and let my deck and some furniture play the role of the frame.

I first threaded some light cotton yarn along both sides of the afghan. Then I threaded the top and bottom of the afghan, but only the tips of each scallop. I had all four sides threaded, with an extra few feet at each end for fastening. At this point I wasn't quite sure what I would fasten this thing to, but I knew I would figure it out.

Now, I guess I forgot to mention that we are undergoing deck repair, so I was restricted to using one rectangular section of my deck area. Fortunately the length and width of the deck and my finished afghan were compatible, though there wasn't a lot of extra space at the sides.
I started by tying both ends of one lengthwise thread to the deck railing structure. Now I had a problem - there was no corresponding railing on the other side, so I decided to use the deck chairs. I lined up a chair at either end and then tied the other lengthwise yarn to the respective chairs. I moved the chairs further apart to get some tension and then surveyed the situation. Good for a start.

Next I needed to stretch the top and bottom threads, so I followed the same process, tying the ends to a table on one side and chairs on the other. Things were still looking good, but I now no longer had any space to get around the afghan to tighten up the strings. I either had to crawl under the afghan or go into the house and out the back door. As I worked through the blocking I did a little bit of both, for variety and exercise! Oh, and I found I was short a chair, so I had to find another and throw it over onto the lawn so that I could place it where it was needed.

Now I needed to lace around the sides, to pull and tighten, much like you tighten a corset or shoes. I took more cotton yarn and laced the first long side of the afghan, in a zigzag pattern, threading through first the long running thread and then the deck railing. I continued this all along the side. I then did the same on the opposite side, though in this case I was alternating between the long running thread and the deck chairs. Finally at the bottom and top of the afghan I threaded through each peak.

Now the afghan was ready for wet blocking. I used my garden hose on a fine spray and thoroughly soaked the afghan. This caused a major sag, as the wool stretched a bit. So I tightened each of the zigzag string yarn sides and ensured that the afghan was square. With water dripping off the afghan I no longer crawled under it to get to the other side, so I had many trips in and out to fine tune the look of the afghan.
I also decided to help the natural drying, and brought out two fans which I placed under the afghan pointed upwards. I let them oscillate and circulate air. With the sun shining on a lovely afternoon, the afghan was dry within a couple of hours.
I cut the strings and removed the afghan from the deck framing.


Perfection! It had wonderful stitch definition and looked fantastic.

If I made many afghans, I might be inclined to make a reusable, collapsible frame. But for this situation, my improvised solution worked out just great.

Did I mention I am a Girl Guide?