Knitting

DIY Sock Blockers

Karen

In preparation for sock two finally being finished, I thought I’d look into sock blockers. I know blocking is essential really with socks so I had a little search online. I showed them to Mr C and he thought we could whip some up ourselves. We went to B & Q to buy some exterior plywood (I figured that would be best as the socks will be damp when they go on it.)  

Once we got home I searched for tutorials online and found some templates, which I printed and used in conjunction with a sock I’d already made. This site was particularly useful, but the template is to print on Legal sized paper and I don’t have that so the sizing was dodgy, which was why I needed my sock to check the size. I drew it out on 12″ x 12″ scrapbooking paper and then drew holes to help dry the socks, using online images to help plan them out. Once I was satisfied (lots of rubbing out was needed before I was happy with the placement of the holes), I cut it all out and drew it on the sheet of plywood. 

With help from Mr C, we cut it out using a jigsaw and then we sanded them. Before cutting, I placed making tape over every cutting line so that splinters were minimal. We also put the jigsaw on a fairly slow speed setting for the same reason. There were still a few splintered areas but on the whole it cut pretty well. I also drilled holes at the top for hanging them up when drying. 

Looking at them now I’m thinking that I haven’t got enough of an angle on the foot, though this was the angle on both pairs of socks I’ve made. (Maybe that’s why they need blocking!) This set are just version 1, I will evaluate fully and adapt the template in light of any findings from blocking socks on them. Then I’ll tell Mr C we need the tools out again!

And here they are in use:

Now to keep knitting that second sock ready to block to the next pair! (Mr C has idea for how to improve/speed up the cutting process so I think more blockers are definitely in the pipeline, plus we have a rather substantial piece of board left!)

40 thoughts on “DIY Sock Blockers”

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