Before I got to the actual blocking, FPS spent a good amount of time in the bathroom sink. This is because immediately after I started washing the stole, the water turned into a lovely shade of lime green. (I’d post a picture of it, but none of the one I took showed the hue in its full neon glory.)
Yeah. Wasn’t expecting the stole to be that much of a bleeder.
So, I broke out the vinegar, added some to a new batch of water, and soaked FPS for a little while. Unfortunately it didn’t help enough, as FPS insisted on bleeding through the following couple of rinses. At least the color was lighter, but still, serious bleeding going on. Back into a vinegar rinse it went. And the cycle repeated until the water was finally close to clear.
You’d never know how much it bled unless I told you, though, because the color of the yarn still looks pretty good.
Here’s a detail of the stole while it’s still on the blocking board:
It turns out that my length estimate was quite a bit off, because I’d forgotten how the seed stitch and selvedge edges would limit how much I could block this out. Without borders, the stole was ridiculously stretchy when dry; with borders, I was lucky to get five feet of length when damp. It’s still longer than I am tall, so it’s a perfectly reasonable size, though I would have preferred it to be longer.
I’ll be heading out of town for the weekend shortly, so I won’t have time to take finished photos until Monday. Look for a happy FO post then!
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