Making a Blocking Board: It's a family affair

Dearest Jean-Marie (who has yet to respond to my Monday morning greeting),

As you know I leave for Arizona tomorrow! I'm trying to get the Isabella top done, the pillows for my grandparents done, and I need to do laundry, pack and I was going to try and straighten my hair for the trip - think I'll manage? I think perhaps I will, but only if I give up most of my sleep tonight! So, first on the list was felting and blocking the pieces for the pillows I'm making. I dragged my husband into craftland last night and we put together two fabulous blocking boards for yours truly. I do (as I suspected) have more than extra - I have enough board to give you some to make your own small boards, plus a large piece I was thinking of covering that we could share for large pieces (stoles, shawls, etc.)

First - the husband cut the boards for me...



Then I covered the boards in felt - none of the instructions I found online said to do this, but the gingham fabric is so thin, I really wanted something between the board and the fabric.



You'll notice I have a helper... isn't she sweet - the inner workings of these home-made blocking boards are lined with the fur of my darling Mia... with love. As a side note, I was noticing how most of the knitting blogs I read have cats, and everyone seems to assume that just because you knit you have to have a cat - therefore Mia and Merlin will be starring in as many of these posts as possible. Just so everyone knows some of us are dog lovers! As you know, all tools in our house are bigger and heavier than the average tool - and so, my homosote boards are covered on the back side by plywood so that the staple gun I used to attach the felt and fabric didn't push staples all the way through the board to the otherside. These boards are fantastic and I love them... observe Mia and Merlin modeling them for us...



So, I hurriedly finished knitting up the backside of Grandpa's pillow last night and crashed - thrilled with my new boards and ready to felt the pillows... which I did this morning. Very early. Too early. What the hell am I doing awake early. I had to run the agitate cycle THREE times in order to get the amount of felting I wanted. But! Those pillows are knitted, felted, blocked and currently at home drying. Wahoo!

This is Grandpa's pillow, Grandma's is light grey with a pink diamond. There is some stitching that goes in a cross to add the argyle detail, which is going to look so cute! I'm thrilled with these pillows - can't wait to show you the finished product! The top picture is of the pieces before felting, the bottom is felted and blocked. I realize my edges are a bit scraggly but I figure they're pillows... it won't matter once the pieces are sewn together. I bought environmentally friendly stuffing too - which you know makes me happy!