Sophie's Universe Wet Blocking

I have posted a couple times before about my journey making the Sophie's Universe afghan.

You can find my first post from back in January here.

Then I blogged about the half-way point here.

Also the finishing up details here.

And now I want to talk about the "wet blocking" process a little more. My first attempts were done with canned food and a blanket. More traditionally it is done with foam blocks and pins. Once I was finally finished with this huge and beautiful blanket I knew it would be wise to invest a little in some blocking tools.

The only problem is that I couldn't find any affordable options for interlocking foam mats. The afghan is over six feet square, so I knew that after stretching and coaxing, I would need a little more space. I knew that an 8'x8' area would be best. But that's an insane amount of square and way more money than I could afford. Luckily after talking it over with my husband, he remembered seeing some at... COSTCO! Of course, Costco is always kind of a  gamble because so many of their items come and go. BUT. I am so very happy to say that I was able to find them at an outrageously affordable price. Thank goodness!



As for the blocking forks- another dilemma. Joanns offers one brand, 40 pins, for $15. Again, no. I'm on a budget here. But I'm really great at problem solving and sticking to a budget so I started looking at other options.

 Aaaannnnd! I found a great option in the floral department, for a fraction of the cost. I will have to look up the exact details but it was a large pack for less than $3- and that is without using a coupon.

Score!

You know that as soon as I got home I got to work cleaning and vacuuming the room (Pro Tip: crafts motivate me to clean).  I set up the foam mats.



You can see that the whole configuration barely fits in the tiny room. But I am glad it did.
I said a prayer and crossed all my fingers and toes as I dumped the finished afghan (read more about finishing it up here) in the washer. In a crummy little rental apartment stacked washer, there are so many things that could go wrong. What is all my hard work and beautiful yarns got torn apart (like that scarf I washed the other week)?! Here I am dramatically photographing it going into the wash.



I am happy to say it survived! The spin cycle was especially effective and I had to wet it again to make sure it was damp enough for the wet blocking process. It was definitely a chore since the water added so much weight but my trusty partner in crime helped me out.

Once it was dumped onto my blocking station it was just a matter of pulling, pushing, pressing, measuring, tugging, pinning, pinning. And repeating that over and over and over. And then over and over again some more.



All pinned down, now just to wait and wait and wait for it to dry.