What did he do this time...

1st clue:

2nd clue:

3rd clue:

And no the answer isn't knock the house down...

Lisa is getting into some larger and more interesting pieces of knitting that need to be blocked (laid out and given form) in a flat manner, so I built a blocking frame for her. This particular one is six feet on any run and can be set up in two inch increments to fit about any rectangular or right triangle piece.

Since I know there are a few knitters (and/or people who know and love knitters) out there that read this from time to time, these things are really not that hard to make. 

The wood is standard 1x2 size. A good straight grain hard wood would be best but some soft woods will work (be careful of any wood that might react badly to wet yarn! (in this case react badly means thing like stain the knitting...)). Drill pilot holes for the nails that are small enough that the nails will grip well but large enough that you're not splitting the wood (remember that you're putting a lot of nails in line so a split down the middle is a real possibility if you don't pilot hole).  The pilot holes also help you nails run relatively straight with no muss or fuss. The holes in this one are two inches apart.

The nails are actually the hard part... ordinary home center nails are not acceptable... the basic steel ones tend to rust and the galvanized ones are galvanized. Galvanization means the nails are coated with zinc. So, instead of rusting they flake off zinc and then rust. You can try them if you want but I avoid galvanized metal whenever possible because it will flake off if you work it enough; and since I tend to heat metal in the shop, zinc is a bad thing (it tends to vaporize and go places you don't want (like your lungs!)). The nails I recommend are stainless steel (10dx3" in this case) they are available on line, or for those of you near the coast try a good boat shop.

The sections will be tied together in what ever size Lisa needs on a project by project basis (adjustable is a good thing here).

In other news we survived stake conference last week, not sure everyone did though (in the leadership meeting the visiting general authority challenged the stake to have thirty prospective elders ready to be ordained by our next stake conference... I think leaders from a couple of wards started having heart palpitations...). Our ward's choir sang for the adult session on Saturday night and our bishop gave the first talk of that session (again people from a couple other wards suffering heart palpitations because their egos are dependent on themselves being better than our ward!)

For those wondering about how our ward got featured in conference,  wondering about Lisa or I or our projects or any other related questions I submit this by way of answer (and for those who don't have any of those questions just enjoy the video...)

That's it for today...

See you next week