blocking

[Beaglelady]

making the Coastal Shrug for someone (they bought the kit from Herrschners)   It uses 5th Avenue Coastal Cotton yarn.    Any suggestions the best way to block this?   Pin it and use a spray mist bottle or put it in the washer and then pin and block it?   Open to any suggestions.  Thanks!!

[MaryPat]

It looks like the yarn is about 50-50 cotton and acrylic.  If your proposed misting doesn't work, steam should help a bit.  The acrylic should lend itself to being shaped by the steam more than the cotton.  Loads of folks will warn you that you can melt acrylic with steam, I've never had that happen in 30 odd years of steam blocking acylric.

 

If you anticipate it will get washed a lot, the steam would be more effective at allowing something to keep its shape after washing. 

 

Whether it needs pinning:  if the shape is close to what you want, you may not need pinning.  But if you're blocking to make it behave and conform to shape, pinning is needed. 

[Beaglelady]

so, I could use my flat iron on the steam setting and hold just above it?

[RoseRed]

I would wash it.  Then lay it out and pin it so it can air dry.