One Down

I finished the first sock last night.

A couple of notes:

• I used the Ozyarn no-wrap short row heel. Big surprise, eh?
• I used a much tighter gauge than what is specified for Wool-Ease. The ball band says 4.5 spi, but I did 5.5. Why? Wool-Ease feels rather loosely spun and I thought the sock would be more durable if I knitted it a little tighter. I'm very happy with the texture of the sock. It's still squishy but it has a lot of body
• I did a modified toe. I did a few sets of decrease every other row, but then I switched to decreasing every row. This made a nicely rounded toe, and may be my favorite looking toe so far. Here's a pic.

So, it looks like I'm safe for goal number 1 -- finish the pair by Friday.

Circular Needle Kinks

One of the Addi Turbos I've been using for the sock had a bad kink in the cable that never seemed to relax. It was slowing my knitting down because it would curl around the other needle and the yarn and make everything into a tangled mess. So last night I dropped the needle in a pot of simmering water. I left them in there for maybe 15 seconds, and used a pair of tongs to pull them out. And voila!

Perfectly relaxed cables!

A note of warning -- make sure you don't let the cable hit the side of the pot. The first one hit the hot edge for just a second and it had a small abrasion on it. I smoothed it out with an emery board so it's OK, but a few more seconds and it wouldn't have been pretty!

Blocking Board

When I posted the pic of the completed sweater, I was silly enough to think you all would be impressed with all that knitting! But it was the blocking board that stole the show. I've responded to everyone who left a comment asking about it, but since it was so popular I thought I'd post it here as well.

The board came from yarn-store.com. It was $78 plus shipping, and it took about 2 weeks to arrive. It folds in half and is pretty easily stored behind a sofa, large piece of furniture or under a bed.

I like to block my pieces under a ceiling fan because it significantly reduces drying time. Since the only room in the house with a ceiling fan does not have a table in it, I place the board on my ironing board. It's portable and easy to set up, and is steady enough for me to lean in and pin on it.