Because I've been pushing in a lot of pins.
Yes, it's finally blocking time. Two things are currently pinned out, and will hopefully dry by the end of the day. So I can, you know, sleep on my bed.
Actually, the Orenburg is currently sitting under a damp towel, because the process of blocking it took SO MUCH FREAKING TIME that it started to get too dry even as I was finishing up blocking it, and I worried that it wouldn't hold its shape quite right. Not that I want it to exactly hold this shape, because it's a little uneven, but, still.
Why so long? It's very big, and I tried a few ways of blocking it that didn't quite work out, for various reasons. Mostly because I only have two hands, and arms that aren't all that long, and it's very big.
Now, first I thought I'd try the Russian method, which involves stringing all the points on a long thread and pulling and arranging and blocking using that.
Cool, I thought.
So, last night, I strung the whole thing on some fishing wire.
My first problem somehow came in then; I managed to twist the line at some point, and get a knot in it. This proved problematic when I attempted to manipulate the lines and the shawl and the...
Short story? It didn't work. I think I needed at least another set of hands, and possibly a few stiff drinks. I was also trying to do it out on my deck, on a sheet, because it was the only big flat surface unencumbered by all sorts of things, and the wood's not really very good, and I figured I could actually poke pins in it (which turned out to be disturbingly accurate, though not entirely). Today's gloriously sunny, so it seemed like the perfect chance. But it was also still damp from rain yesterday, so since the whole lines thing just didn't work, it seemed like I might as well just try something inside.
So, next, the bed and pins. Off with the sheets and pillows and all that. On with the shawl.
And, as you can see, it's big, and my bed's only a double.
The problem is more obvious when you look at this view. When I pinned the center of one side at the center of the bed, I ended up with not just a little overhang, but a lot of overhang. If I'd had to go over the edge of the mattress and stayed on that, that would have worked. Perhaps even staying on the box spring. But this? No, this wasn't going to work. Particularly since the lack of extra hands was hurting here, too, because pulling tightly in one direction proved problematic for pulling in another direction, and the whole thing was getting frustrating.
Argh, I thought, and unpinned and started to fold the thing, thinking I'd wait until some unspecified future day when I had more patience to deal with it.
And then I realized that when folded in half, with a line threaded through the fold to keep it more or less straight, I could actually manage the pinning.
And so, starting in the middle, working out to the corners, then up the sides, then pinning out the line, not the shawl itself, along the center, I hope I've managed to block it reasonably well.
Keep your fingers crossed, and hope for a reveal of the final thing in a day or so. (The cats, incidentally, are currently freaking out over the fact that I've shut them out of the bedroom; Ziti in particular keeps rolling around in front of the door and rattling it, trying to get it open.)
In the meantime, I'm also in the middle of blocking the roundabout leaf tank.
Much to my surprise, I'm blocking it wide, not long. I assumed I'd want to add extra length, but it's actually just fine, length-wise. But a bit more, er, snug, than I'd ideally like.
Actually, it's an interesting lesson in ease. As I realized earlier in the summer, negative ease can be definitely a good thing on some projects. Not so on this one. While the other summer tank I'm working on (in principle; I haven't touched it since June... but finishing it is next on the list so I can feel justified in starting something else) needs to be a bit fitted, this one really doesn't need to be.
Why?
Bandages. It looks like mummy wrappings if it's too tight.
So, here, too, keep your fingers crossed that it works out OK. I will say, I like the bamboo, and it did soften after washing. I'm still flummoxed at how much it tightened in the joining; I honestly did think about the ease question, and started the join I thought with plenty of ease. But, well, live and learn.
And finally, a Toronto image.
This is parked outside my office building every day.
The particularly Toronto thing (or perhaps particularly Canadian thing)?
On the menu, it notes that with fries, "gravy is always free."