blocking board and sweater progress

So... I did not have a blocking board, and I was kind of bumming out. I did some googling and could only find these massively overpriced or undersized excuses for same. Plus, I wanted instant gratification (not to wait for shipping!). So I googled some more and found some instructions...and found some along the lines of this (although those aren’t the exact ones I saw - I can’t find them right now for some reason, though).

I went and bought the homasote - which in and of itself was a major hassle, but at least it was an amusing hassle. It went like this:

I go into Home Depot and grab a 4’ x 8’ sheet of homasote. The nice guy in the lumber/wallboard area cuts it into 4 2’ x 4’ sheets for me. I take it to the register and say to the lady there, as I point at the pieces of homasote in my cart, “this is a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of homasote. It’s $23.72. The bar code is on the edge in the front there.” The lady looks at me blankly, picks up the scanner, and attempts to scan it in. It doesn’t work. She tries repeatedly, but it continues to not work. She looks at me and the following conversation ensues:

HDL (home depot lady): it ain’t scanning. what am *I* supposed to do about it?
Me: are you asking me?
HDL: well, it ain’t scanning!
Me: Well, it’s $23.72
HDL: it ain’t scanning. I’ma sposed to do what now?
Me: I don’t know. I don’t work here. Call a manager?
HDL: [stares blankly]
Me: [looks around][waits] look, it’s $23.72, can you just put that in?
HDL: I TOLD you, it ain’t SCANning.
Me: yeah, you said. [waits]
HDL: [pulls out list of hardwoods, looks for homasote]
Me: this is not hardwood. It’s homasote.
HDL: well, where you get it from?
Me: [pointing] right there.
HDL: you sayin’ this came from there? this ain’t from the floor department?
Me: that’s correct.
HDL: well.
Me: [waits] so, are you going to call a manager or something?
HDL: [tries scanning again]
Me: [becomes impatient and starts looking for manager type]
LG (lumber guy): [notices problem] problem ladies?
HDL: it ain’t scanning
LG: she has one 4 x 8 foot sheet of homasote. It’s 23.72.
HDL: but it ain’t SCANNING.
LG: you want me to get you another one?
HDL: well this one ain’t scanning.
LG: so I’d heard. Be right back. [goes, returns]
HDL: [scans] This one scans.
Me: praise the lord.
HDL: [punches in “4 @” ]
Me: no, just ONE please.
HDL: now don’t you get all playin up in my face. I see you got four. I can COUNT.
Me: yes, I have four pieces of 2 x 4 foot homasote, because they cut the ONE sheet into four pieces
HDL: well how I’ma sposed to know that?
Me: Gosh, I don’t know. I told you I had one 4x8 foot piece. The lumber guy told you I had one 4x8 foot piece. The items you are looking at are clearly not 4x8 feet, they are obviously smaller. I didn’t realize I had to explicitly state that I had the lumber guy cut my homasote into quadrants. My deepest apology.
HDL: I can COUNT you know. You can’t be playin’ me.
Me: are you going to finish the transaction or what?
HDL: [grumbling] FINE.

Yeah.

Then I went to Joann’s and bought some 1-inch checked gingham, and some organic cotton batting, and I also went to Michael’s and got a staple gun. Then I went home and covered the board with the batting and cloth, and stapled. Then I pinned out the two pieces that were done. Today I pinned out the third. Here are some photos:

The plain homasote:



The sweater fronts (this pattern is asymmetrical, btw - my gauge isn’t horribly off)



The back and the two fronts:



side view of the board:



I have enough supplies to make three more and I do plan to eventually :)