Rolling out the mental block

Roll away mental block

Don't pin me down !

It changed my life – well my tatting life!

It may not have improved my tatting, but it absolutely improved the finished look.

I heard of blocking finished lace only in 2014. Before that I simply ironed the lace.

I detested, therefore procrastinated the pinning of each element – too much work !
Around the middle of 2015, Ignes posted a photo of  her doily on Craftree, with a rolling pin beside it. My mental block towards blocking tatted lace vanished !!! Now I am eager & ready to block before photographing, using the trusty rolling pin. 

Of the many ways to block lace, I have done the following  :

1. Place a muslin cloth over the lace & iron over it on medium to high setting. (very good results, flat but not crisp)
2. Place the smaller pieces under/within a book & weigh it down with more books. (limited to small pieces & fine thread & does not always work)
3. Dampen the lace & pin the lace at regular intervals or chosen points to shape . (very good results, flat & crisp, but too much bother).
4. For appliquéd or sewn lace, when the fabric & lace is still damp after a spin-dry from the washing machine, gently pull the tatting into shape on the clothes line. (This is very effective for long/broad edgings on sari or bed-sheet & makes for easy ironing later. I continue to follow this).
5. Rolling pin !!! (I’ve become a convert & die-hard fan! Simple, quick, effective). 

Due to recent interest in this last method along with a request for pictures, Ignes has graciously allowed me to share the rolling pin method. I have prepared a step-wise pictorial & converted to pdf file for convenience. It can be downloaded here : How to Block Lace using a Rolling Pin

Here I will share a few of those pics & others of my past tatting Before & After blocking with a rolling pin, some of which you may remember.

How to Block Tatted Lace Using a Rolling Pin *

* click to download complete pictorial

For the pictorial I added a 7^th arm to Georgia Seitz’s SuperBowl Sunday Snowflake & allowed it to ruffle with fairly tight chains (my apologies).

Anchor size 20 thread was used for the snowflake. I have tried this method on size 10, 20, & 40 threads ; on small snowflakes, coasters to the 22” Snow Doily. I think it gives the quickest & crispiest results with size 40 for obvious reasons.

Dunk in water till core thread is wet. Adjust with fingers. Then roll over it. I like to place the item wrong-side up, in contact with the rolling pin. Rolling the pin just 2-3 times over the lace, with even pressure, is sufficient to remove excess water.

After excess water is removed, place over/under dry towel & gently roll again. (the water mark can be seen on the right in above pic)

In case of larger pieces, one may need to change the towel once.

TADA ! 
One can do spot blocking if that portion or picot misbehaves.
Download complete pictorial here

Limitations 

• Cannot be used if there are beads in the tatted lace.
• Each individual picot is not addressed. If the picots behave during tatting, then they will block fine. An odd picot here & there can be adjusted with fingers or spot-treated later with blocking pins. But this rolling pin method will not produce very sharp picot points.
• And, of course, 3D pieces cannot  be blocked (although layered tatting can see heart pic below).
• Personal preferences as well as thread characteristics. What works for/on one may not work for/on another.

Advantages

• No advance preparation. Simply walk into the kitchen & block on counter, board or any floor tile.
• Materials. All one requires is a rolling pin & dry towel. No need to gather a blocking board/foam, iron, blocking pins, stiffener, etc. Consequently, no storage & space issues. No waiting for the iron to hot up.
• Instead of a rolling pin, one can use any cylindrical object to roll, including a baton.
• Very Quick & easy. Dries fast & crisp. Ironing does not give as crisp a result as the rolling pin.
• It is possible to apply even pressure to the entire tatting with the rolling pin.
• Layered rings/tatting can also be blocked with this method.

I have not used, nor needed to use, any fabric stiffener or starch so far (I prefer drape). But if one wants a stiff piece at the end, Ignes uses hair gel in a spray bottle. In her own words :

‘ "Concrete gel" i.e. super strong. It's my go-to blocking help, after just drying fast. I wouldn't use it on articles that should be worn, but it keeps my motifs and smaller doilies nicely stiff. The more gel, the stiffer. On the big doily in the picture I just used a little bit, per surface area, so it stayed quite soft.’

Who would’ve thought that the quintessential rolling pin used to straighten an errant spouse, 

could be used to straighten delicate lace as well ;-p

What is your preferred way to block tatted lace ?

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