The tail end of a cold is really pulling me down, so this post will be brief and visual.
The knitting for the Hemlock Ring Blanket is complete, and I should be moving on to the blocking except for two things:
1) I'm not sure what space I have right now that is large enough to pin it down to.
2) When I tried to spread it out, it was really difficult to flatten out the middle (you can see that I've poofed up the center for the picture to help get the rest of it to lay flat) so I'm wondering if a good soak is going to be sufficient to loosen it up enough to block correctly.
And, I'm also concerned about whether this is going to be a good gift. I'd hate to have to have the darn thing be blocked out every time it was washed. The last thing a new mom needs is a fussy baby blanket.
Anyone else made one of these blankets and have any comments on that?
A shame I forgot about this pattern. I think it's also very neat for a baby and there's no chance that the garter stitch is going to cause blocking or maintenance problems.
Good luck with the blocking.
I'm not sure the OpArt blanket is such a good idea: have you seen the last pic shown in the instructions, the 'pre-blocking' one?
And yet it is garter stitch.
Happy knitting,
Philhellene
I knit a Hemlock Ring just recently, and found that I did, indeed, have to soak and pin the thing in order to get it to lie flat. In the end -- after the pins were removed -- it was never perfectly flat, but close enough.
If you look at the pictures on Ravelry, most show the blanket draped over something (including my own) ... I think this is something that a lot of people had trouble with.
I have knit 2 Hemlocks. I didn't have problems with poofy centers but I used 10.5 needles instead of the recommended 10s and had help (in the form of a cat) keeping the center flat. Another thing I did was pin out the center motif first, then block the rest of the blanket out from the center. Good luck!
I think that once it is used and washed a few times that it isn't important for it to lie nicely flat. I loved my baby blanket and it wouldn't have mattered if it had holes or weird unintended ruffly bits. I think that a good blocking once for presentation is enough.
I agree with Lea. The blanket will never lie flat when it's in use. And you do want it used, don't you? Perhaps baby's bum will fit nicely into the poofy bit and that will become a feature!
I made my Hemlock Ring blanket in Ecowool, but washing/blocking was easy. I just soaked it in the washing machine, and did the spin cycle without agitating, then spread it out on my bed. It was pretty much flat just with spreading it and smoothing it out. I didn't pin anything. I knit mine on 10.5s too, for a little more drape.
Your Hemlock is gorgeous, but I think a busy mom might just stash a blanket that needed handwashing and reblocking every time. I would keep the Hemlock and give L something easy-care. You know, good old superwash or cotton or whatever else can go in the hot dryer.
I used Simply Soft and had to "kill the acrylic" for it to lay flat. If I ever chose to knit another one I'd make sure it was in something that was washable and dryable with no blocking needed (if that's possible).
I've made this one too, and like Karen above had much success with pinning the center out first. The blanket blocked out flat as a pancake. Yours is gorgeous!
cough cough
I hate colds, the end is the worst part.
I hope we BOTH feel better soon!
Late to the party -- but the poofy center looks like an apple blossom or a wild rose or some other type of flower. Is it possible to *keep* it looking like that by sewing the poofy bit in place, and will it still function well as a blanket?
Just a thought...as long as it lies flat (enough) for you to be happy with its presentation, does it really matter if it gets poofy when its washed? I don't think I would care, really...as long as the baby loved it, it could poof all it wanted to.