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  • For the Precision (OCD?) Knitter

If you ever have the inclination to learn more about washing and blocking your knits than you will ever need or likely care to know, come and ask me about it. I dare you. Somewhere in the midst of a very long diatribe, the topic of how best to shape your knitwear will be broached, and one possible solution is blocking wires.

Imagine an image here. Normally I am loathe to post sans-photo, but these look exactly like they sound like they should – a set of about a dozen wires of varying lengths.

Blocking wires come in two main types: straight (or rigid) and curved (or flexible). There are many in-between kinds, but typically a wire will be relatively heavy gauge for use pinning out a straight edge, or relatively light gauge for pinning out a nice smooth curved edge. Both have their merits and drawbacks, and both have their place. We have both, just to keep us all happy.

I won’t go into much more here other than blocking wires will make your life way way easier, save a lot of time, allow you to avoid unsightly scalloped edges (or produce lovely scalloped edges, if desired), and seriously cut down on the number of blocking pins needed (do not even think about asking how many hundred t-pins I own…)

And of course, on to the freebie of the day! Today I am going to be slightly awful and plug myself and my fellow designers here at Urban Yarns. We have some great free patterns available for you in store! They are designed to work great with many yarns we carry, and we love to see our creations out and about. Come in and ask about what we have hidden away in the pattern files – there’s lots of goodies there.

2 Responses to “For the Precision (OCD?) Knitter”

  1. Sandra says:

    Some of us that follow along live far away and unable to
    “come in and see” the patterns.
    Can only shop once or twice a year in person or shop on line,So we have no access to the patterns or suggested yarns.

  2. admin says:

    We’re starting to get underway with putting more patterns up online – slow progress but we’re working on it http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/urban-yarns

    Likewise, most of our stock is now online. We’re still plugging away getting photos taken and edited, but most everything is up at urbanyarns.com for online shopping.