In January 2007 I started knitting Clapotis, and in June 2007 I finished her... now I have actually blocked her.
I laced pieces of string through her sides, laid her on an inflatable mattress and laced her up the back. It didn't work too badly, although I should have laced a little more frequently: she's a little scallopy. As a first attempt at blocking anything it went pretty well, I don't think my mother will mind a few scallops, and it drapes beautifully.
I've been more than usually ditzy this weekend, so trying to get the inflatable mattress and the string to do what I wanted was extremely challenging. Especially as I chose to wrestle with it in my oversized pyjamas, and at one crucial point I was trying to manouver the damn thing while my pyjama bottoms were falling off and tangling my feet. I carefully put the whole thing down, got out of the pyjamas and continued. I have no idea what in independent observer would have thought.
One of the advantages of blocking on a plastic surface and being able to put the entire thing out on the balcony in the Australian sun: it was bone dry within an hour. I did have a lovely day for it, and although we're technically in winter, the word has little meaning here.
Photos will be added later: maybe a lot later if I don't get around to taking any before it is wrapped in tissue paper, stuffed in a satchel and sent nearly 1000 km to Ballarat (still a lot closer than the 17,000 km it would have had to go if I'd finished it last year).
