"Block severely"

My preference is to block lace within an inch of its life. Now I can accomplish this even better, because my darling husband has made me a lace blocking frame! He used Knitpicks' tutorial, which resulted in a sturdy frame with a vendetta against lace!

With yet another Sundara FO off the needles, I was eager to give my new toy a whirl. The pattern is Swallowtail, one of the many fantastic Evelyn Clark shawls. I love this pattern, especially the nupps, but I'll save a wrap-up of it until it is off the rack.

As for the blocking frame itself, it is superb!A tip I got on the Rav Lace Knitters Group was to use plastic weed whacker string to string up my shawl. This worked really well, and made it easy to adjust as I went along.

My preference is also for pointy shawl ends---I love the points! I also tend to block for width and not length, since I'm on the short side, and in this case, the recipient, my mom, is even shorter. So my shawl on the frame is tight as a drum, and skewed wider.








I also adore the way the nupps blocked. The way I knitted them was v-e-r-y loosely, and I actually did the p5tog, which so many people seem to not do. I was also concerned a substitution of beads for nupps would make the shawl too heavy.