Thinking about it, whilst I can see that washing would be needed if it has got grubby during making, it might not be necessary. Bobbin lace is worked with the threads kept in shape be the pins in a way that knitting and tatting, which do require blocking, are not, so we don't normally block bobbin lace. It may be that the end that is pinned as you are working is a little more stretched out than the rest but that should relax into the same size over a relatively short time. Silk is chosen for its softness and drape, blocking might not enhance that and water can cause it to lose some of its sheen.
Also, what I forgot to mention before is that silk is weaker when wet (again the opposite of cotton and linen) and should be treated gently in a wet state, not stretched out as this may cause fibres to break. Leave the final pins in for 24 hours- silk has a good 'thread memory' (think of all the easily creased wedding dresses you see!) and should hold its shape well. I hope you are pleased with the finished scarf, now to plan the lace gloves to match? :-) Jane Partridge On 24 Jan 2016, at 20:53, [email protected] wrote: Hi all I am about to start the last repeat of a red and pink silk Torchon scarf (from Brigette Beldon's book). I bought a package of "Knitter's Pride Blocking Mats", which are like blocks of soft styrofoam. When I finish the scarf (tonight??) I plan to submerge the scarf in warm water mixed with a little Ajax dishwashing liquid, swish it around a little, and then submerge it in warm clean water and swish again. If the colors seem to be running (I don't know if that is a thing that happens) then I'll run more warm water over it until the water is clear. Then I'll roll the scarf into a towel to absorb the water so the scarf is just damp and not dripping wet. Then I am going to lay the damp scarf nice and straight on my new "blocking mat" and put pins in all the pinholes on the outer edges of the scarf (not into any of the inner pinholes). I think it would be hard to keep the scarf straight if I put the pins in consecutively so I figure I will first put in pins really far apart from each other, like a foot apart, and then fill in the middle so that the pins are half a foot apart, and then fill in again so they are 1/4 of a foot apart, and so on. Is it important to put pins in every pinhole or can I get bored and stop when I've only pinned, say, every other pinhole? Is this a good plan or is it a really awful plan and all of you out there are cringing in horror? I've never pinned a piece of lace. Until this past summer I'd never washed lace at all. This past summer and fall I've washed (as described above, except I laid the dripping wet lace on a paper towel instead of the big cloth towel I plan to use on the scarf) two very narrow cotton bucks point exercises and one small and sturdy cotton needlelace exercise (the Venetian Gros Point exercise from chapter 1 of Catherine Barley's great book) but I didn't pin either of them. I washed the bucks edgings because I wanted to practice sewing lace to cloth and I was told to always wash both the lace and cloth before attaching together, and I washed the needlelace because I'd carried it in my handbag for a long period of time and it was really dingy. The needlace was colored cotton (Madeira Tanne 50) and the colors didn't run together at all when it got wet-- the only change was that the needlelace went from being dingy and dirty looking to bright and pretty. Julie Shalack All snowed in in Laurel Maryland USA - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/ - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
