It never gets old

Blocking lace, that is.

I took a single skein (550 yards) of white, lace-weight, merino wool (Monocacy, from The Knitting Boutique).
 

 

Then I knit it into Evelyn Clark's beautiful Swallowtail Shawl. The nupps went much easier after I remembered that they rhyme with soup, not cup. (That's a joke, son.) After dropping one of the five purled-together stitches repeatedly, I did some research online. The crochet hook method was appealing, but a little awkward to execute, since I am left-handed (and crochet left-handed). The method that worked best for me was to k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 into 1 st, then yarn over again and pass all 5 stitches over the yarn-over one at a time. Then the next st in the pattern is a yo. This made the purl-back rows even simpler, and I couldn’t see that my nupps looked any different for doing it that way.

When it was done, I gave it a good twenty-minute soak, rolled it in a towel, threaded it onto blocking wires, pinned them out and went away.

 

I love the moment when it is completely dry, I put away the pins, draw out the blocking wires, and hold it up. Magic.