Saturday 3 August 2013

Steam Blocking Acrylic Yarn

If you are a regular follower you will know that I am working on a rather large piece - Cathedral Rose Afghan.

My latest update on this included a little bit of steam blocking, as it is something that might be useful to someone in the future I thought it deserved it's very own little post.

This is the first time I have steam blocked anything and in all honesty, didn't really believe it would work - but guess what?  IT DID !

So, grab your iron (now where on earth might it be?  Last time I saw it was a year ago when I ironed my shirt for my first shift in Hobbycraft, since then I have been careful to take said shirt out of the hot drier, give it a good shake and hang it up - no ironing necessary.  Aha, found it, stuffed in the back of the understairs cupboard!)

Fill it up with water (!!  em.... I just about managed to plug it in last time before my teenage son Iain took pity on me and did it himself) fill it with water?  Where?  How?  Oh, that little hole thing in the top...ok then)

Turn it on  (I can do THAT!  :) )

Put up ironing board (did I ever tell you the story of my son Adam going to school and telling his teacher we had a surfboard?  He got into huge trouble for telling lies while still insisting we had a surfboard.  You guessed it, he thought the ironing board was a surfboard, having never witnessed what one does with an ironing board he just didn't know)

Wait for it to heat up (actually I wandered off and forgot about it - old age you know)

Then holding the iron a couple of inches above the work press the steam button (that's the one with the little cloud on, right?)



Push your work into place and flatten with your fingers (taking care to remove the iron and steam first, coz it stings moderately)



Ta dah!  Perfectly flat, beautiful work with nice stitch definition  :)

Before
After

My iron is a Steamglide Iron from Russell Hobbs, presumably most steam irons would work in the same way  :)

ps: The Amazon links are affiliated  if you click and buy I might get a few pennies.  Just so you know :)


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