Handcrafted vs. Homemade

Blocking my sweater in stages is progressing slowly. The evening after I blocked the front pieces, I blocked the sleeves. It took 8 wires to block each sleeve; thus using up all of the block wires in my blocking kit.

Someone asked me why I block my knits as this unnamed knitter never blocked any of her knitted items.

There are plenty of reasons to block your knitted items. There are a lot of previously written articles on why you should block, especially if you're knitting a lace shawl!

• Twist Collective has a wonderful article on blocking. 
• So does the Tech Knitter
• The Yarn Harlot will tell you she blocks every time....
• And Vogue...
• There are many many more out there. (Link to a Google search)

I can understand why people don't want to block. It's extra time and effort that could be spent doing something more fun....like picking out your next project or starting something new.

But Vogue sums it up nicely for me:  "without blocking, your perfectly knit garment will look sloppy"

IMNSHO, blocking makes the difference between something that looks hand-crafted vs. homemade.  It's the reason why I press seams open when I sew and why I add grosgrain ribbon to my sweaters. It's the extra bit of effort into the finishing touches that can help a finished garment look more couture & polished, and less homespun.

It takes a lot of time and effort to block. For me, just blocking this sweater has taken three evenings. And it'll probably take me a bit longer to seam the sweater, add the edgings, sew in the grosgrain, etc.

 
 It took 10 wires to block the back piece.

But I know it'll definitely be worth it once I'm done.