Slipping into Madness

H-2: Your Precious Patent

We could always use something beneficial once in a while. So why don’t you invent something that could be useful to mankind? Share this marvelous invention with us in a blog entry (or static item). (<1000 words)

Right now, I've been dealing with some serious aches and pains that are associated with getting older at a steady and inexorable rate, and I can deal with that. However, some of the things I used to be able to do with ease are now more difficult. For example, blocking.

What is blocking? I'm glad you asked. As a lace knitter, I deal with the fact that a shawl when it comes off the needles is not really . . . presentable yet. It's in a blob state.

Lace is really about the empty spaces surrounded by beautiful fiber. At the blob state, those empty spaces are barely apparent. This means we need to block the piece, to open it up by wetting it, and while wet, pinning it out so that the lace blooms and shows, and then letting it dry in place so that the material maintains its shape.

Blocking is done (in my house) with a set of play mats shaped like foot square puzzle pieces made of foam and stainless steel T-pins—stainless steel because they are going to be wet and T pins because they're big enough to hold the yarn under tension. As I tug and pull the shawl into shape, I put a pin into each place on the edge that wants to hide, showcasing the lace instead. Occasionally, I also use stainless steel rods if I'm blocking a straight edge, as in a scarf.

So, why is this a problem? I do have a method of doing this necessary chore. However, pinning out is a long and arduous process, where I must crawl around on the floor for hours while I try to make sure the lace is doing what it wants to, that any points at the base of the shawl are suitable dramatic, that I'm going to like the shawl once it comes off the mats.

Occasionally, I've be able to block on a bed (although that's difficult because who wants a mattress full of pinpricks) or on a table, and that eases the strain on my knees and back, but this is not a permanent solution for shawls, which tend to be vast and of such strange shape that a table cannot hold them (at least not a table in my house.

But that's my invention. I want to invent a modular table, designed like the puzzle piece play mats but tall enough to work comfortably. They should be able to fold down for easy storage, and would be more useful in eighteen inch to two foot square modules. As necessary, I would set up the tables and walk around, pinning the shawls into their ideal shape. I would recommend having additional table top options, because while I am most interested in foam to use pins in, there might be a situation which would require some other surface, and I would prefer the tables to be multi-functional (a surface suitable to cutting patterns comes to mind).

While I'm inventing this tool, I also believe that it needs to have a built in fan function to turn on once the shawl is blocked, to make the drying process faster.

Such a modular table will make my life infinitely easier the next time I have blocking needs, which will be next weekend, with any luck.

Word count: 553