Crochet & Steam Blocking: Professional and Finished.

I posted the other day on a fabulous and funky, Boho Fiber Curtain that I did and realized- as I was completing this one- that I left out a very important LAST step.

You see, I have a huge yarn stash.  I get lucky sometimes at my local thrift stores to get giant bags of yarn.  It’s new yarn with labels and I am picky (I smell it and feel it – true story!), but sometimes its vintage and wool and old! So, it’s been all wound up in skeins and balls for maybe decades!  Even when yarn isn’t vintage and new, it’s all wound up in a ball, so when making fringe or hair or something like that, it isn’t straight and doesn’t lay as flat as it can.

I steam block almost all my crochet work.  Animal parts, scarves, granny blocks, etc.  When you steam block a piece made from acrylic yarn it relaxes the fibers a little – they become softer and lay flatter and just look more professional and finished.  It also refreshes older yarn and gets rid of static if you are using any wool fibers – steam blocking just adds that final, professional touch that makes it worth it.  Be careful!  You never want to touch the iron to your piece unless you are “killing” it – which is also a great thing to know how to do for things like appliques or letters you are adding to a project.  So, make sure your steam is super close, but that your iron doesn’t touch.  It is super-fast and easy – if it fits on my ironing board it gets steamed.  It is done in a matter of minutes compared to wet blocking.

I tried to get good photos of how wonky some of my fibers were before steaming this curtain – and it was “static-ky.”

You can see here before:

And here, after.  I steamed this one with my hand-held steamer.  With one hand I held my fibers (not the big, chunky, roving yarn, but the small strands of acrylic yarns) and with my other hand I grabbed my steamer and put the flat tip right up again my yarn.  It doesn’t hurt the yarn at all!  You can literally see it working and watch the fibers soften up and relax.  I just went all the way down each long set of strands until I was done and then trimmed up the bottom.  Hopefully you can really see how nice and straight my fibers lay after.  And no more static cling! It really does make such a huge difference.

So, here you have it.  My latest completed fiber curtain.  I just love them all!