Steam Blocking Acrylic?!?!?

Can you steam block Acrylic???

Well, yes. Blocking your yarn project will make it look more finished and professional, and help it retain its shape over time. Traditional wet-blocking will not work on acrylic yarn, nor will ironing, because the fibers melt under extreme heat. However, if you want your project to relax and soften without keeping it's exact shape, steam-blocking is your friend.

For example:

I knitted these 2 stocking caps using 100% acrylic, worsted weight yarn on slightly smaller needles than what the yarn called for. The resulting fabric was quite tight. As you can see in the photo, they were stiff as a board when finished. In order to get that stiff acrylic to drape properly, and to make it soft and pliable, I had to "KILL" the acrylic with steam.

Acrylic yarn is made from a kind of plastic, called acryonile, so it is very sensitive to high heat.   "Killing" refers to relaxing the fibers with heat so that they are pliant, but not using so much heat that you melt the yarn.

Once you "kill" an acrylic project, the blocking is permanent. The yarn will never go back to the original texture, even after washing. There's no going back.

Vecteezy.com

When steam blocking, I use a hand-held Sunbeam brand clothes steamer that I've owned for ages. It's important to find the kind of steamer that can be used while your project is laying flat, such as this one. (I am not endorsing ANY particular brand of steamer here, just recommending a form factor.) This style steamer makes blocking lacework a breeze. I strongly advise against using a traditional clothes iron. They get far too hot and will melt your acrylic work if you accidentally touch the iron to it. It is possible to use a clothes dryer to achieve a killing effect, but I prefer to have a more precise application of steam.

In this example, I used a glass head form to support my adult sized hat. The infant hat was being staged on a champagne flute. (Using styrofoam head forms isn't the best idea when blocking with hot steam.) I simply heated up the steamer, and passed it gently over the red portion of the hat until it wilted to my liking. Notice that I completely avoided steaming the brim, as I wanted that to remain stretchy.

When finished, the drape was soft, the band was still stretchy, and there was no deforming of the fabric. It was exactly what I was looking for!

The result is a hat that would make Santa proud!

Good luck on your projects! Let me know if this was helpful, or drop a line or a pic in the comments.

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