tip – blocking a cowl

Knitting cowls is something I really love to do occasionally because it’s just so zen. You know, round and round and, well, round! But after binding off comes the blocking of the cowl and that’s where it can become somewhat tricky….

I mean, shawls I stretch out to the max. and pin them down on my blocking mats. But if I do this with a cowl I get those sharp creases in the cowl where the fabric was folded. Just gently patting a cowl into shape gets the same result. So how to prevent crease lines when blocking a cowl?

How to block a cowl

First, I start by giving the cowl a gentle wash as described in steps 1 to 4 in the “blocking an asymmetrical shawl” tutorial.

Next comes the simple solution to preventing creases: the humble pool noodle!

Just insert 2 pool noodles into the cowl, gently pat it all into shape and leave the cowl be until it’s completely dry. You can, of course, use any cylindrical shaped object as long as you’ve got two, they’re long enough and resistant to wetness. They are after all to be inserted into a wet garment.

I like to call this the PNAB technique. It stands for Pool Noodle Aided Blocking, you know, as a similar acronym like CAD/CAM. The use of the pool noodles prevents creases in the cowl really well. It also works with conical shaped cowls:

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And that’s all there is to it, I just love those handy crafting hacks!

Oh, and for those wondering, the cowl featured in the first picture is the Flits! cowl. The one in the blocking picture is the Bast Cowl, which makes a set with the Bast hat. The cowl with the lacy chevron patterning is the Indian Summer Rye cowl. Sometimes I just love knitting cowls!