Blocking my Raspberry Beret

Just popping in to share some pics of my latest beret and - more specifically - to mention the blocking technique that I used for this.


























The beret and flower were made from one skein of Sublime Kid Mohair, using a free pattern by Susan Power called Baroness Beret (Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baroness-beret).

I will definitely use this pattern again. As for the yarn, I find it soft and light and almost barely there when wearing the hat. I'm totally in love with the colour. It's such a luscious shade of red... bright like raspberry coulis and a little pinker than pillarbox. The flower was not part of the pattern, but I think it works well, edged with a fine chain of kidsilk haze in black.


My ravelry page for this project is here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/flockhartsl/baroness-beret



Anyway, onto blocking techniques...



Having made a whole load of lace berets recently, I've got into the habit of blocking them over a dinner plate, which works very nicely for giving that proper beret shape, and really opens out the lace. However I think that this beret has the best blocking result of all - and I think that it is due to having taken an extra bit of care over the ribbing. I've posted a few explanatory pics below...

• The first pic shows the beret before blocking.
• The second pic shows the beret stretched over a dinner plate
• The third pic shows something new - this time I basted the ribbing to pull it into shape over the plate. This made a difference and resulted in a snug, unstretched ribbing
• The final pic shows how I like to leave the beret to dry overnight.