Men Who Knit Promoting and inspiring the art of knitting amongst men.

Happy that I could oblige.

No, I don't use blocking wires. I lay a piece of heavy, clear plastic down and using permanent markers I draw a circle and then divide the circle into how many ever segments I need, in this case 48 segments. Then, I extend the "segment lines" outward using a board as a rule. I then, place the clear plastic sheet onto my rigid insulation blocking board.

Then, I figure out my shawl radius and place a mark on each segment line at the distance of the radius. That mark shows me when to put my T-pin. Once I've figured out where my T-pins go, I place the wet shawl onto the blocking board and start blocking it, pinning at opposite ends of the diameter lines. In case I misjudge my radius length (which I usually do), I can just "move" my pin mark out to where it needs to be. Once I figure out the longer radius length, I mark each (of the 48, in this case) new T-pin mark, stretch out the shawl and insert the T-pins.

I hope that makes sense.

It may seem like quite an involved method but I'm very anal retentive about getting perfect, circular blockings so it works for me. I save the plastic sheets and use them over again. In this case, I can use the 48-point sheet for a 24-point shawl, a 12-point shawl, etc.