I love our new house, but it has one deficiency: no carpet.  Which, I suppose, really isn’t a deficiency (I hate hate vacuuming), but as a knitter, it causes me problems.  I have always blocked projects by laying towels out over the carpet, and then pinning my wet project on top.  You can’t really do that with wood floors.

So, I took a trip to Target the other day and I found a substitute in the baby section:

These foam puzzle pieces are meant to protect babies from dangerous floor bacteria (or something, I don’t really know).  They’re about about 16 inches square and about a half inch thick, and they interlock.  They are perfect for blocking.  I lay them out on the floor, throw a towel on top and block away to my heart’s content.  They run about 20 bucks for a set of 6, which gives you plenty of real estate for smaller projects like scarves, shawls, and probably even most sweaters.  You can also find similar foam blocks in sporting goods stores (for doing yoga or weight lifting on), but I am a sucker for bright colors (like babies, apparently), so I went with these.

These work super well, so if you don’t have a floor you can pin into, I highly recommend you invest in a set or two.