If using a dyed yarn, sometimes there’s excess dye. Soaking your knitting helps the fiber release the extra dye. Step 3: Spray the blanket with enough water to dampen it, then leave it to dry. Finally, remove the pins. Terms Only once the shawl is TOTALLY dry, cut off the ends. You have spent a long time on this, so store it carefully. Fold it gently and place in a cotton bag (an old pillow case is fine) along with deterrents for your local pests. Alternatively, roll the shawl round postal tubes taped together. For a white shawl, you may wish to put a layer of acid-free tissue paper round the tubes first, and between the layers of the shawl. First you will add 1 wire on each side of your project. Then either pin the wires out flat to shape or hang the piece from one of the wires, depending on the shape you’re working with. That’s a simplistic example which gives you an idea of the variation. It’s hard to be definitive about which projects will retain the best stitch memory, but it’s the kind of thing that becomes more intuitive with experience. So give it a try!

It may feel counterintuitive, but do not put your first pins in the corners. Pin in the centre of the sides and keep opening up the fabric out towards the corners. Then pull out each scallop individually. If you need to use pins, make sure they are quilter’s pins – long, with a prominent head – so that you are less likely to spear your next guest. Tie the edge of the yarn - from the knot - around a piece of tailor’s chalk or dissolving tailors pen where the mark dissolves in a certain time period.

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The precise approach to pinning will depend on the shape and style of the garment you’re working with, but I wanted to include this image to give you an idea. Meanwhile, prepare the surface. Here I am using foam play mats from Lidl. Note that I am using them ‘upside down’ – the flat side up – as I don’t want the ‘print’ of the right side to transfer to my shawl. You may wish to cover the mat with a sheet, especially if your shawl is white.

To soak, submerge the fabric, gently squeezing out any air bubbles so that the piece can remain under the water without being held there. Never place any wool item under running water as this motion may felt or full the wool. You will see here that there are dips in the fabric between the pins. Carry on using your fingers to manipulate that fabric and place the next pins half way between the previous pins. They are essentially boards with holes drilled into them at regular intervals, like peg boards, into which tall solid doweling type ‘pins’ (pegs) will fit. You can add a small amount of delicate dish soap, rinseless wool wash, or Tuft Woolens Wool Soap to the soaking water if you wish; if not rinseless, you will need to re-submerge the piece in clean water once or twice to remove the soap from your fabric.Once you have the pins in the centre of the sides, continue to evenly shape the fabric, then you can add the pins in the corners.

This technique is a gentle method that doesn’t require you to soak your knit. You only need a steam iron, T-Pins, and mats. Clare Devine is a writer and designer. Originally from South Africa she has nomadic tendencies and is currently knitting her way around the UK. She is passionate about all things fibre related (especially if it’s grey), knitting, travel and sunshine in equal measures.Step 9: Leave the fabric to dry. Once the material has dried, you should remove the pins and seam them together when necessary. Make sure all distances have the same measurement and the corners are 90 degrees. Keep smoothing and stretching out gently, pinning the edges until everything looks and measures out correctly.

Step 1: Lay your newly finished knitted piece onto a soft towel. Put the towel on a surface suggested above. Knitting a scarf provides an effective way to learn how to count rows in knitting . This is because a scarf is large and contains sufficient vertical and horizontal stitches. Now depending on the knitting pattern you choose for your project, you could further learn how to change colors in knitting . To use them, you weave the sides of your fabric onto the wire (think of the tip of the wire as a yarn needle) at regular intervals, spreading one side out evenly over the wire Leave your shawl to fully dry. If you remove pins too early and the shawl is not 100% dry, all your hard work won’t turn out well.

Once the wires are in it is time to start pinning and stretching. The tiles tell me the centre of the mat, and I place the centre of the shawl so that its centre is the mat’s centre. This is for squishing the water out of your knits. Note I did not say wringing, please be gentle with your wet knitwear!