DIY Sock Blockers

A little while ago, there was a picture floating around Pinterest of someone's very large, very beautiful laundry room on sock-washing day.  The walls and counter tops were covered in freshly laundered hand-knit socks drying on beautiful artisan sock blockers.  It was a gorgeous picture (that I can't find now).  It was basically the opposite of my laundry room. When I wash our hand knit socks, I hang them to dry in our master bath on these:

I have three of them.  They each hold 8 pairs of socks.  They are from Ikea and are fairly inexpensive. I have been told that they are also available on Amazon.  They get the job done, but the socks don't look as pretty or store as flatly as when they dry on sock blockers.

I have steel sock blockers that I purchased from WEBs.  I love them.  I have all three sizes and they are simple enough and pretty enough that I have even used them in pattern photos for some of my designs.

This weekend I went to my local dollar store and found some vinyl placemats.   I traced the outline of my sock blockers onto them and cut them out.  This is what happened:

One placemat was too flimsy - it would have been frustrating wrestling a damp sock onto it - so I taped two together to make a thicker sock blocker.  Cheap and cheerful. The only drawback is that they are solid so there is no airflow therefore the sock would take longer to dry.  Also, they do not have a hanger, although it would be easy enough to put a hole in the top to hang them up.

So I made sock blockers from wire coat hangers.  We have lots of wire coat hangers because the Husbeast is a suit-and-tie kind of guy so I frequent our local dry cleaning establishment.

Not pretty, but functional and easy.  It takes about 2 minutes to shape one into a pseudo sock shape and it has a built in hanger.

I think I will make a few more coat hanger blockers and use them for drying freshly laundered socks. They are easier to fold and take up less space when they are blocked vs. when they hang dry.