LizzY Gallery: Blocking in crochet or knitting using marbles

Assalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh : السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

(May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you)

Blocking is an important part in crochet or knitting to give nice final result. There are several way to block crochet or knitting. To get more clear and details meaning about blocking, you can refer here

To be honest, I had never really blocked my crochet or knit like the way advised in some books I have read i.e. using specific media, pin and spray. What I did was; After I finish crochet work, I washed it and then hang it to dry. Before it got completely dry, I ironed it with medium heat. The way I ironed it was; I put the iron on one part, pressed it for few second at the same time stretched out little bit at the edge of the crochet to shape it, and the move on to next part. I did like this to whole part of crochet till completely dry. I did not know whether this was correct way or not but anyway it worked. I don't know whether I can call this way is as one of blocking technique. By the way the material of my crochet was cotton thread, so might be won't work for other type of thread or yarn. One reason I did this way because I did know how to block crochet cloth due to it was not flat item.

Last year (2013), I made a full crochet long dress, I couldn't determine how many round I should made exactly because it would stretch down. I had an idea to hang it and give weight to stretch down. I needed something small and heavy so I could hang them at the edge of dress. The first thing came out of my mind was small stone because there were many small stone on front yard. So I picked several stones in similar weight. I used plastic strap to tight the stone and hang them around the dress edge ( I already crochet the dress about 1/2 of the exact length I need). I let the stones hang for 2 days, and it worked, the dress was getting longer than before. I was satisfied and proud of myself. I didn't know whether I invented this idea or might be someone had ever done the same way somewhere in this world.

After I discovered that I could use weight to stretch down crochet dress, I thought further to use something else instead of small stones because so hard to get the same or even similar weight. I was worried the crochet dress won't have same length. Suddenly I remembered marbles, I was so excited thinking of them. So I went to buy some marbles. Next step was to think how to hang them without using plastic strap because too slippery . I started to think wrapping each marbles before I could hang them. All of a sudden came into my mind to wrap them by crochet. Taraaa..... here they are;

Here the way I use the marbles to stretch down the crochet dress:

Now I will show you how to fasten on and off the marbles in crochet work:

FASTEN ON THE MARBLE:

Determine the space in crochet work as when we want to pin in blocking i.e the tip of a motif. Please refer to image no 1.
Insert the loop of crocheted marble into tip of motif space
Insert the marble through in the loop
Release the marble hung