Home Made Sock Blockers

Yep, I block my socks! Not every time I wear them, but when they’re fresh off the needles. Before now, I’ve just patted them out onto a towel, but now I’ve made myself a couple of pairs of home made sock blockers.

I’ve spent a bit of time drooling over beautiful sock blockers on Etsy and elsewhere, but could never justify spending the money. And now I’m glad I didn’t, because I made my own home made sock blockers in less than 30 minutes, and for zero dollars.

I used these instructions for my home made sock blockers. Hah, I even used the same IKEA placemats (although I didn’t buy them new: I rescued them from a flatmate who was tossing them out!).

It was a very easy process. First, as the instructions commanded, I traced around my foot on a sheet of paper. Then I found the widest measurement (A) and the length (B).

Yes, that is the shape of my foot. No, I don’t want to go shoe shopping, it’s no fun for me!

The next step was the trickiest: I reduced those measurements by 10% (remember, socks have to have negative ease. We don’t want sock forms to blow them out. Then, I used those to sketch a sock blocker on a piece of card.

I did this free hand, but you can google image search “sock blocker” to get an idea of the shape. I traced this onto a piece of card and tried a sock on it! It fit pretty well, but I made some small adjustments before moving on…

I traced my final sock form onto a piece of plastic. I used IKEA placemats, but you could use anything kinda stiff, but easy to cut.

Cut out and tidy up any rough edges with a nail file. That’s it!

As you can see, I got two sock blockers from each placemat – one short and one long. That’s great, because I can block two pairs of socks at one time. I prefer shortie socks, but I figured long blockers would be handy to have too!

Since I upcycled old placemats instead of buying new ones, and sketched out the sock blocker template on a bit of junk mail, the cost was exactly $0. That’s right, these home made sock blockers were free. Not bad, huh?

As you can see, the socks look clean and neat on their blockers. So pretty, I don’t want to take them off.

Bonus: How to block socks

Okay, now we have home made sock blockers, this is easy!

1. Fill a (clean) sink with cool water. Drop in some wool wash, or hand soap, or shampoo. Not enough to make a ton of bubbles, but you want a little something in there to dissolve the oils from your hands.
2. Gently press the sock(s) under water, then go make a cup of tea or something. Leave it soaking for at least twenty minutes, or up to 24 hours if you get distracted.
3. Lift the socks out carefully, supporting them with your hands so they don’t stretch under their own weight. Gently squeeze out water with your hands – don’t wring.
4. Slip it on to a sock blocker. Leave for at least 24 hours, or until dry.