ugh, I hate blocking. I think the only reason I dislike it so much is that I always think it is going to take about 1/3 the amount of time it actually takes. If I just relax and get into the zen of blocking it's not so bad. I think I have to see blocking as a fun activity in itself and not just an annoying afterthought of knitting. It would also be much easier if I still had that lovely high density Styrofoam that is at my parents house. I used my futon to block my last shawl, and the pins really are not holding well, which is very frustrating. I think I am going to have to check on it every few minutes all day to make sure most of the pins are still in it. Oh and keep the cat out of thereHere is the shawl blocking on the futon. You can see it is pretty much the same as the last one, but it is a little larger and it has beads on the edge.

The beads are pretty eh? They were a bitch to put on though. I think it took two hours just to do the beading.
I finished one of the socks for my sock pal and I have started the ribbing on the second. I was really happy with the yarn for this sock, it is really soft and wonderfully stretchy. My only complaint was that the plys have a tendency to split, which was a little annoying, but worth it for the end product.