semantics, semantics.

Which is actually one of my least favorite things to hear, ever, because semantics are incredibly important, language being one of the primary ways we understand the world.  Claiming that the specific meaning of things is irrelevant is a great piece of evasion, plus I always find it fascinating to discover the way that different people use the same words to mean different things.  It can be very, very interesting to try and discard jargon in your own speech - I can't think of a good example right now becasue I am stupid from the aspartame withdrawal and subsequent exhaustion - and be specific.  You can find out surprising things about what you are saying to another person, or what they are hearing, anyway.

The semantic question on the table today is "blocking."

Steph and Dr. Steph both had the same reaction in the comments yesterday - if it can't be blocked, how can it be washed? 

Which I thought was kind of odd.  Well, actually, I thought Steph was snarking at me.  But then we got talking about it and ended up spending about an hour debating the definition.   We have come to the conclusion that there may be a cultural difference at work here.  Though whether it a Canadian vs American difference, or a knitterly variant based on being self taught vs. trained in older tradition remains a question.

To me blocking means applying wetness - steam or damp towel or complete immersion - and then tension or shaping of some kind.  It involves a tape measure and probably pins. It is about setting and evening my stitches but equally about shaping.

I am strictly self taught.  The first time I heard of blocking was an article by Jessica Fenlon - what happened to her blog anyway? - about the first time she knit something and it didn't fit and her knitting mentor asked her if she'd blocked it and she discovered that if your sweater hiked up over your bust you could improve things by adding a little extra room at the bust by soaking the sweater and placing some wadded up plastic bags inside to stretch and shape the front while it dried.

And then - I don't remember exactly, but I heard of blocking wires and blocking boards and I saw a picture of Shetland lace frames and I related it in my head to hat blocking - which is a pretty brutal process with hot irons and a wooden form.  So blocking to me is a practice involving some degree of applied force.  (I have to admit that this is a reflection of my personality to a degree.  It is possible that I like to over manage.....things). Plus, I have had some trouble with things that stretch impossibly large when they are worn - this is a function of scale, my sweaters are larger and heavier than Steph's - and I want to knit them and then block them out to their maximum measurements so they are done stretching before I ever put them on.

To Steph blocking begins with washing your knitting and laying it flat and arranged gently.  (HARD blocking is what you do to lace at the other end of the spectrum).

I guess I think that's laundry. 

I've got no skin in the game regarding which is 'correct' and I have deliberately avoided looking anything up.  I am really interested in what other people think blocking means. And whether it relates to how you learned to knit, who taught you and your particular concerns with shaping your knit wear.  Please tell me your version.
Abby had a wonderful post yesterday about definitions of things and cultural context, which I encourage you all to read and which I found extremely timely considering the conversation I had just finished.

Isn't context fun?

I should have been clearer about one thing though - when I blocked the sleeve the first time, I did it way too aggressively – laziness on my part, I was trying to avoid redoing it when I knew it was two inches too short.  Some yarns are very cooperative with this sort of thing, but this one is not one of them.  The yarn was stretched out and working against the properties of its construction and when I reknit it right from the cast off without relaxing the fiber first, it just looked limp.
The second time I washed it I used Steph's definition of blocking - laying it flat and patting it gently into shape - but I ought to have read the manufacturer's laundry instruction first.  Hand washing with no squeezing and compression and low temp steam for shaping.  Instead of rolling it in a towel and jumping on it.   There is was a lot of air in the yarn and I squashed it all.

It’s not quite dry yet, but it seems happier having been skeined, washed and hung with no tension.

My point yesterday was not about whether blocking was 'good' or 'bad' for any particularly type or brand of yarn, but about my own assumptions in thoughtlessly treating them similarly, though they are not made the same.  I am trying to be more aware as a knitter – I’m tired of ending up with sweaters I won’t wear. As much as I like the process, really, I’d like some nice clothing at the end of it too. 

Not a very good picture of the sleeve being knit the second time.  The help was in the way.

Comments

[Wanda]

My "blocking" as it were, is more like laundry. When I first finished a sweater, tat was pretty much how I was told, to fully immerse a sweater in water and then rolling the garment in a towel to squeeze out excess water and laying flat to dry. I've yet to have a problem where the sweater or garment showed me any real differences, so I'm happy with this. I also seam my garments first and then block. I think there are as many schools of thought on blocking as there are knitters. I mentioned to a friend that I was blocking the pieces of a sweater and she questioned me. She works at yarn shop and said that when they do finishing for a customer, they seam it all first and block it, b/c if you don't then you still need to block the seams after it's seamed up and basically it fit my need for less work, so I went with it. She also has much more finishing under her belt than me, so I went with her expertise.

For lace, I definitely do a more aggressive hard blocking. I think I will need to get some blocking wires soon though.

[Liz (the crazed weasel)]

The amazing Jessica Fenlon's doing more art type stuff lately, but one of her sites is here:
http://www.drawclose.com/

And I wet block except when I don't. My favorite sweater has been languishing, waiting for me to get around to re-blocking and undoing the damage done by my slightly overzealous dry cleaners. It's been waiting about three years.

[Dr. Steph]

I BLOCK just about everything with pins. I find it easier to assemble pieces that have been wet and shaped first and I like how all the stitches even out.

I also want to torture the pieces a bit before sewing so I can see how they will behave. That also helps avoid disappointment later on since they are already essentially washed (which also means I can wear it as soon as it's done).

When I wash things I sometimes pin them at the edges (especially if I did a bit of stretching) but most of the time I just lay them flat to dry. Like all garments the first wash or two tends to remove any extras (like oils or starches) so that they find their true drape etc. (Again, some things are just not the same after washing, so I want to know before I'm done).

[Lizbon]

I have no comment to make on blocking, since I am too lazy to block anything (reshape, dry flat seems to be my limit), but I want to chime in that I couldn't agree more about semantics. I used to edit other people's prose for a living, and more than 98% of what I did was to clarify, clarify, clarify.

[Charli]

p.s. I finally found a pattern to go with that beautiful (although a bit splitty) yarn I bought from you. Hooray for me! It's the very simple "comfort shawl" free pattern from IK, and now from "Knitting Daily," too. Although the pattern directions make it seem way more complex than it is.

[Charli]

I think of blocking the way Steph does. My mother taught me to knit when I was about 5. Actually, I pestered my mother into teaching me to knit [she was not the teaching kind of mother]. Then I had to reteach myself when I was 38, although some parts came right back to me: casting on, kniting, purling, I guess, pretty much everything except seaming. Yep, although I knit sweaters in high school, I had absolutely zero recollection of ever seaming. And, no, they were not knit in the round. It's just amazing to me how there is this complete void, when I have living proof that in fact, I did sew the pieces together to make the sweater. [No, it's not possible that my mom did it for me, I would have considered that "cheating," and also, not making the sweater myself.]

I wish I understood a 1/10th as much about knitting and yarn behavior as you do.

[Abby Franquemont]

Hahaha! You know, this is *exactly* the kind of discussion I was thinking about when I wrote that whole thing (and thanks for the link!) I often find, in discussions of fibery stuff online, that I'm spending more time defining the terms and context to give what seems like a straightforward answer, than I'd have spent to just make an assertion. Or something.

Blocking... blocking is more than just laundry. Handwash cold, dry flat -- that's laundry. Take the pre-assembly pieces of a garment, and make sure they all line up just so and are shaped just right? Blocking (and I do it pre-assembly on garments, not that I seem to have knit a garment in a couple of years, hrmmm).

And of course, I can't help but want to digress down the path of saying "And this is why I always recommend finishing yarn in a wash that's more aggressive than what you want the finished object to hold up to when you wash it," because I don't *want* to be surprised by what the yarn does in the finished object, which is actually one of my big peeves with millspun yarn -- a lot of the time, it's been through a finishing process that makes it appear to be something that'll behave one way, when the truth is, it won't.

Laura Fry, a handweaver, says "Fabric isn't finished till it's wet finished." I tend to fall into that camp. Things should hold up to their intended care. So, like, when I sew? I pre-wash the fabric before i lay the pattern out and cut pieces. ;-)

[Fi]

Hello, I haven't commented before, I do love your blog!

I'm in the UK, self taught, and blocking to me means 'the laundry thing' for a finished piece. I do wash them by hand (in the UK we have automatic washing machines, and you can't stop them from doing 1600 rpm spinning if they are destined to do so, so it's safer to hand wash). I then squish most of the water out, and then more by rolling it in a towel, reasonably gently (no jumping on it) and then arrange them flat to dry in the cat free area (spare room).

If I've got lots of pieces to block before making up (I actually like sewing things together and have not yet knit a seamless thing) to me it usually means a blast with the steam from the iron (while not actually ironing the piece) if the yarn can take it. I find most of the wool I use is not bothered by it at all, but if I were to consider doing this to a delicate thing I would do it to the swatch first. Then I lay it flat until the bit of dampness steaming gave it is gone. It may be lazy girl blocking, but it works for me (and like a dream on Rowan Tweeds/Rowanspun and those kinds of yarn, which are my favourites)

I think I would only 'hard block' for lace, if I could find the patience to make anything lacy!

[Emilee]

Hmmm...

I'm American, and I suppose I would agree with Steph insofar as I think there is a range to what constitutes blocking. Not everything needs to be beat into submission. You would block a fair isle sweater differently than a lace shawl, for instance. You'd want to treat the sweater in such a way as to even out the stitches, but not brutally stretch it to a much greater size like you would for lace.

Then again, if I just dampened something and patted it into shape I'm not sure I'd say "blocking" either.

[ivete]

There are so many things that fall into the category of "blocking" to me -- steaming, "hard" blocking, washing, etc. I rarely "block" the way you had described in your previous post (knitting it smaller to force it bigger in the blocking), but then again I rarely work with rustic/stiff wools which might benefit from that treatment. . . speaking of which, for projects that you do that to, do you do it every time you wash the sweater?

[melissa]

I'm in the Steph camp. You got yer blocking, then you got yer BLOCKING.

[Sarah]

I guess I consider all of it blocking. I do what needs to be done depending on what I have knit. I remember reading where Myrna Stahman calls it dressing. It does not matter much to me. Thank you for sharing the link to Abby's post.

[mamacate]

There was actually a flame war of sorts about this on a list I frequent oh, maybe a year ago. The final decision, such as it was, was that blocking in commonwealth countries meant whatever you did to your knitting after you washed it, appropriate to the yarn and garment (i.e., it meant yanking and pulling lace; gently arranging sweaters). In the US, blocking usually meant some form of stretching.

I confess that I had a similar reaction, but I came late to most of my knitting-finishing education, and I think I learned a lot of it from Brits, Aussies, and our fair neighbors to the North.

YKMV (your kilometreage may vary)...

[Gwen]

Actually, I think I understood what you meant, even though I block more as Stephanie blocks. You unthinkingly abused yarn that shouldn't be abused that way. I would have stepped on it, too, even if I'd read the care instructions.

My laundry and my blocking (not counting lace) are suspiciously similar. I'm not sure where I learned it - my mom knit when I was young and maybe I do what she did/does without thinking about it much.

How's that for a non-answer?

[Webbo]

I think the blocking/ laundry distinction works very nicely. My Grandmother, by the way, has no idea what blocking is: her knits are mostly manmade fibres and she was baffled when I said I was blocking something to fit. Once I'd done it, though, I was baffled too: the process was so tiresome, and the result so... stretched, I decided that it wasn't a viable alternative to mastering my gauge after all. I think JoVe has a good point about care instructions too. I have some old Rowan Wool Cotton labelled handwash only, and some newer balls which they can be machined washed warm. Put both swatches in the washing machine - no difference at all. Lies, lies, lies!

[donna lee]

I am also a self taught knitter, the first one I know of in my family. They all look at me funny when I pull out the knitting when I am babysitting. I never even heard of blocking until I saw someone write about it on a blog. It seemed like one more thing I was doing wrong because I have never knitted lace, which I understand needs strenuous stretching to show off its beauty. I hate hand washing and my hand washing would sit in the bottom of the laundry basket as well as Carrie's. Julie, (samuraiknitter.blogspot.com) puts her wool in the washer but doesn't agitate it, just soaks it and then empties the soapy water and soaks it in clean water and lets the washer spin it out. She gently blocks the garment. I think I could live with that-no hand wringing or squeezing. I am getting ready to make my first sweater out of good yarn that I care about and suddenly this is an issue. Block before seaming? after? It seems everyone does it differently. I know I do not want a sweater I have to stretch out too much each time I wear it.

[Mary Lou]

I'm in the laundry camp - I use to think of it as the lazy woman's way of blocking, but now I think that for a sweater it's the best way. (Lace gets a much more severe treatment.) I rarely make garments that have to be sewn together, and when I do, I generally don't block till they are sewn together, so the laundry technique works there, too. June Hemmons Hiatt of Principles of Knitting fame wrote a piece on blocking in an old Threads magazine, I think. She said that she thought the idea of blocking with pins etc. was before the advent of steam irons. Heavy old irons weren't a good match, even with pressing cloths, so things were pinned out to dry. Hiatt recommended washing, patting into place, letting dry, and then steaming. She thought blocking to shape with pins etc. was like sleeping on hair curlers. No necessary and mostly painful. (I paraphrase, of course.) I was just happy to find an expert in the details supporting my point of view. Isn't that always the way?

[naomi]

I tend to define blocking the same way you do, since I don't usually bother blocking things that don't need serious attention (hats v. lace).

[Spike]

When I look in Spike's Personal Dictionary, the entry reads: Blocking: making my knitted article look the way I want.

So with garments, it may be "doing laundry." Or "pulling the sweater into shape AGAIN." I had a crocheted Irish Lace blouse that needed to be patted SMALLER after every fourth or fifth wearing.

As far as blocking acrylic, the technical term I've heard is "killing." Appropriate, because once you've done this to the article there ain't no going back.

Wet the item, pin it out JUST THE WAY YOU WANT IT, and iron on a hot steamy setting. Yup, with a household iron.

The acrylic fiber is formed with heat to make it crimpy and lofty. (So it bounces back like wool and traps heat like wool.) Using heat resets the fiber in the new shape--like perming your hair. There is no way to return the acrylic article to the pre-blocking condition. (Need I mention that you want to be able to lay the whole thing FLAT until it cools and dries? This is not the time to try and make it go faster by using the ironing board . . .)

I like the effect on acrylic lace--the resulting article drapes like rayon, and it's not so shiny/plasticy. It remains machine washable and dryable, and it seems to be equally durable compared to unkilled acrylic.

[Margaret]

I'm with you in the blocking = changing size and shape camp. I knit more lace than sweaters though, and block them pretty severely. Sweaters, even if I didn't knit them, get washed and gently shaped (except stretching the sleeves a bit longer as a general rule). So, I don't generally think of myself as blocking them.

Language, meaning, and semantics - would you please explain these to my husband who thinks everyone understands things exactly as he does.

[Marin]

I'm with you -- if all I'm doing is washing it and laying it out to dry, that's just laundry. To me, blocking will always involve stretching, pinning, wires, boards, that sort of thing. Material changes, in the legal sense (and for the pun).

In a related debate, can you block acrylic? Common wisdom in my world says it's petroleum, has too much memory, won't take shape.

Now, if you're just washing it to get the needle dimples and uneven stitches to settle down, I think you can probably block acrylic.

However, I honestly don't know if you can stretch and pin acrylic so it will re-shape or grow... I never tried because I was told you don't block acrylic.

So partly, that debate comes down to these self-same semantics, and maybe that's why I'm in a debate in the first place. Maybe the person on the other side of the fence from me thinks I'm just talking about the natural evening out that happens in the wash and I think she's talking about making material changes to a knitted item by wet-stretching it.

The question remains: Can you block (hard block) acrylic to any significant effect?

[Frarochvia]

I don't think it's a Canada vs America thing, I really don't, but I think you're right, it was a matter of semantics. I consider anything that involves wetting and shaping blocking, even if it's very gentle stuff. But then I'm not into severe blocking.

[Chris]

Aw, the help is awfully cute.

[tsocktsarina]

I'm with Carrie on this one. Blocking varies according to context, fiber content, fabric texture, and garment shape. With lace it means pinning and stretching (though even there it is sometimes possible to do too much of a good thing, as I know to my cost). With sweaters it can mean anything from gentle patting into shape to more aggressive pushing and prodding and yanking - and it's a great opportunity to coax stretched-out ribbing back into springy snugness. A lot of people don't block socks; I generally do, but again the method varies according to the sock. Sometimes I put 'em on one of those flat stretcher things, sometimes (if applicable) I hang them from the points of their lace cuffs, sometimes I just pat them smooth. It's like listening to your yarn (or your fiber) to find out what it wants to be - listen to your FO to find out how it wants to be treated. In my view it all counts as blocking. I also occasionally (mis)use the term "dry-blocking" for what is really dry-pinning - pinning out a swatch (especially a lace swatch) to get a sense of how it's eventually going to block out for real. Then I sometimes wander into a sort of grey area - if dry-pinning doesn't tell me what I want to know, I find myself reaching for the spray bottle.... At what point this process wanders over into actual blocking - well, that's a question I've never really asked myself. But I suppose that anything you do to encourage a piece of already-knitted fabric into taking its proper form - in my book it all qualifies as some form of blocking. Even if that just means wearing it while damp, as long it's done with the intent of accomplishing what is *right* for the shape/drape of the piece.

[Carrie]

Blocking to me means whatever is warranted to get the yarn/lace/knitted item to be what I want it (within reason). If it's lace, I stretch it. If it's a sweater, I stretch it some, but mostly just for shaping purposes. I tend to block less aggressively anymore, since that one time I snagged my yarn with a blocking wire and broke my lace stole right in the middle...