As you can see here, pinning out the garment can straighten out a cable or ribbing. The allows you to see your work and make your stitches look even.
If you have a kitten like Tink, she can make sure that you are pinning everything out correctly.
Once the garment is pinned and ready for blocking, take a wet towel (squeeze out any excess water) and lay it over your garment. The wet towel will protect your knitted object and provide the steam for the blocking.
Take a hot iron and gently press your knitted garment. You should have a lot of steam rising from the towel. Frequently check the status of your garment, making sure not to scorch the garment. If you are worried about scorching your garment, you can steam block your gauge swatch to see how the fiber will do.
You may have to re-wet your towel depending on the amount of blocking you have to do. For this sweater, I re-wet the towel before the next piece to ensure that I would have enough steam to set the fabric.
On the left, the front of my cardigan has been blocked and is ready to be sewn together. The right side is waiting to be blocked.
I like to steam block my pieces before sewing them together as this is much quicker than wet blocking. Once the garment has been sewn together, I may re-block my sweater using the wet block method. In my opinion, wet blocking will yield a better, long lasting result than steam blocking. But, when it is cold and I need to hurry up and finish a sweater, steam blocking works just fine!
