So my second Birds of Paradise shawl is officially 100% complete. My first isn’t… but I’ll get to it.
I tried out my new blocking mats. First, it really brought home how BIG some of the things I make are. I have approximately 18ft2 of blocking mats, and it was barely enough. Some of it was the “square” part of course. But still… I may need to get one more set of 9 mats to really handle things.
I also had to do some anti-cat management. They weren’t interested in the shawl as much as one of them thought the foam would make an excellent scratching board. I placed one of his actual scratchers near by which seemed to help deter him. He also thought the plastic bags for the mats were meant for him to sit in, but frankly I could handle that. I didn’t need to pin out the crochet, as it was happy to bloom on its own. Thus, the ability to pin to the mats wasn’t an advantage for this project. However, I greatly appreciated that I didn’t feel any pressure to get my shawl soaked and laid out as early as possible to ensure it would dry before bed time because it was on the bed. So, blocking mats were a win. I also think it dried more quickly on a surface that didn’t soak up and return the moisture back into the object being blocked (like towels sometimes do).
I am really happy with how nice this shawl looks. I love that the Observatory Circle skein looks just right as the additional color after the Pride Rainbow ran out, and the blue edge is lovely and elegant. The curved shape of it also means I expect it will stay put very nicely and can be crossed easily in front to keep you warm.
