Wired

So you spend all that time knitting your beautiful piece of lace (in these pictures, it's Jacqui's Swallowtail shawl knitted in Rowan Fine Lace), and then you set out to block it. Pins. Lots of them. If the lace has points, then it's easy, though fiddly - a pin through every point. But the straight edge is another thing. Even if you thread a length of string through the edge and then pin that, it's really hard to avoid scalloping. The answer is simple and quick: blocking wires. They make blocking neater and tidier, and they're so much faster to use than a forest of pins. They're made of stainless steel, so your dampened knitting won't get rust marks. They've got gentle rounded ends so they won't snag the fabric. And they're easy to use. Just thread them through the edge of your lace - through the points if there's points, through the straight edges if there's straight edges... ...and then pin out the wires. Because they're stiff, they need a fraction of the pins you'd usually need for the distance. Once you've used blocking wires, it's really hard to go back to the forest of pins. They make blocking lace a simple task, and they're also perfect for getting your non-lace pieces all shipshape. So if you're thinking of a gift for yourself or for a knitter of your acquaintance, these are sure to be greeted with delight. And then there'll be fewer pins stuck into the carpet, which has to be a good thing.