Hourglass Almost Completa

My Hourglass is so close to being done, I just want to put her on with a pair of jeans and wear her out to dinner! But no. Not yet. For the first time, I blocked the way you're supposed to. I soaked my Hourglass in cool water with a tiny dribble of shampoo, rolled her up in a big towel to remove the water, and pinned her out on the cutting board I use for sewing projects, to the exact measurements I want her to be. This morning, Hourglass was still a little damp, so I'm leaving her be. It's great. The washing really softened up the yarn. I do have a question, though. I'm terrified of my wet knitting getting moldy. Is it ok to block on cardboard? How do you keep everything from getting soaked? Should I have put a towel down first? But wouldn't a towel make it even harder to dry? (Ok, that was more than one question.)


There's nothing like the scent of wet wool in the morning...

Tonight I'm hopping on a plane to go down to an event at the NASA center in Southern California. I couldn't imagine all that airport waiting time without a project to work on, so I started some of Ann Budd's baby socks from Interweave Knits' Summer 2005 issue. Small, quick, and very transportable (can you imagine knitting something like Flicca on a plane??).


That's Baby Ull for socks for two babies-in-the-making. Amazingly enough, BOTH of my best friends from high school are pregnant and due within two months of each other later this fall. One of them is having a boy (blue Baby Ull for him). The other is being extremely mean and not finding out the sex of the baby until it's born. Um, doesn't she know that this makes it very difficult for me to plan knitting projects?! Sheesh. I have some bigger ideas in the works, but for now I have enough white Baby Ull for some very cute little sockies that will work no matter what combo of X and Y chromosomes the little one is born with.