WIP Wednesday: Slow and Steady Wins the Race...

I'm here, I swear :) I don't have much to show yet knitting-wise because I have yet to get pictures of a finished item - hopefully that will come this weekend. I set my socks aside for about a week as I worked on slapping out a Valentine's gift for my husband, so there isn't as much progress to show as I would like, but at least there is some. Here is what my socks look like now:

I finished one! This actually happened about 10 days ago, and it took a bit of messing around to achieve. Last time I showed these, I had run out of yarn on the first sock and I had to pull out the ribbing and one section of the lace from the top in order to finish the heel, then I had to just knit ribbing with what was left over. I ended up with about 1" of ribbing, which seems fine. I still have to close up a slight hole at the heel (you can see it in the pic and it's on each side) and block the sock, but it's finished other than that :) Now that it's all finished, I know that I knit a size too big (doh!), but in reality these won't get worn too much, so I'm just excited to make my first pair of socks. I'm knitting the second sock exactly like the first just so they are a dead match. I just made the heel on Monday night, and if it works like the last one, the rest will be pretty quick.

**Question for you, dear knitting readers - I'm toying with the idea of getting sock blockers for these. At first I thought I could just pin them out like all my other projects, but from what I've read sock blockers are not necessary UNLESS you knit lace or cables, which I obviously have. I just want to open the lace up a bit to show it off. Any experienced lace sock knitters out there ever tried blocking without sock blockers? I'd be grateful for any advice. I just hate to purchase something I won't use very often unless it is absolutely necessary, you know?**

I'm excited to finish these up, not only so I can say I've finished socks, but also because I've had the itch to break up the monotony and start something new. I have several other wips waiting in the sidelines though (I've got an Agatha cardigan upper back done and my Emelie cardigan is currently a vest), so I'll be picking those up at least in the foreseeable future.

That's it for me this week! I've been keeping up wth all my home improvements, so hopefully I will have some pictures of that to show very soon. It's amazing how much progress has taken place with my house in just the last month - probably more than in the previous 2 years, lol. Anyway, to fill your knitting wip fix, check out Gracie's Goodies to see what others are working on too!