Blocking?

[berrymama]

I have a great dislike for blocking, and have never been told or shown how to do it properly, so I generally don't do it. But I just made an earflap hat and the flaps and bottom edge of the hat are rolling funny. How do you block things that are not flat, such as hats, mittens, etc?

[Eaglevoice]

I just blocked my first item. It was a christmas stocking that I knitted. I layed it on my ironing board and pinned down the parts that were rolling up. I used sewing needles to pin it down, since the plastic heads of my straight pins would have melted. Then I placed a damp bath towel on top of it. I ran a hot iron over the towel until it got good and steamy. I let it sit like that with the steamy towel on it for abour 5 minutes then took the towel off and let it dry for about 30 minutes. Then I flipped it over and did the same thing on the other side. Turned out great. I don't know why I've never blocked anything before. It looks so nice afterward.

In your case with the earflaps I might lay the hat down so the earflaps are in the middle. That way you can pin down the rolling edges of the earflaps and get them nice and flat. As far as mittens, you'd just lay them down like normal and block on each side.