Waving Lace, Waiving Twisted Flower (for now)

OK, I wimped out again on the Twisted Flower sock! If the charge is that I crave instant, well, fast gratification, I'm guilty. Truth be told, my gauge is going to be very different from the 9 sts/in the pattern calls for. I can compensate in part by doing 1 fewer flower repeats; since I'm giving them to DD#1 (who wears not clogs), I can make a standard heel stitch heel flap. But really, what with wrestling with EFA, work, Passover, and everything else, I just wanted some relaxing and mindless knitting of an evening. If you haven't tried this pattern by Evelyn A. Clark, please do. It's in the Spring 2004 issue of Interweave Knits (and maybe sold as a separate pattern through their website). It's easy to memorize, relaxing, easy to convert to magic loop (or 2 circs).
On the charity front, I completed this hat out of Cascade 220 wool donated for the Ships Project from a fellow Knitters Review member:

The pattern is mine, just sets of 3 st mock cables offset by 3 st clusters of moss st, after 2 1/2 inches of 1x1 ribbing. Did the mock cable every 5th row. Since it was knitted on 2 needles, I crocheted it closed using a slip stitch. Now I'm in the midst of this one:

Pretty denim blues yarn; it's Plymouth Encore wool and acrylic blend. I bought it from a Knitswap member for her fundraising project. When I told her what I was going to do with the 2 skeins, she kindly sent me 2 more in forest green. This hat is just 2x2 ribbing that segues into baby cables, and you can see that it's being knit by the magic loop method (size 7 circs and they are the Inox made in Mexico).

On the EFA front, rather, back, I've completed the charted section (yay!!) and have in reality started the armhole dec, although the pictures don't show it yet.

Close-up of the trees in the middle:

And here's how I'm going to block this section: I'm going to fold it in half, stuffing some socks along the fold (so it won't create a crease - in theory), then pin it to the correct dimensions on my weeny blocking board. This should work because, see the fruit tree in the middle? It's not part of either front. So I should be able to stuff something in back of that part, because it comes from extra stitches for the most part. The 2 ends of the back correspond to the left and right fronts. So I'll pin through both layers but not through the middle section, except for 1 pin at top and 1 at bottom. If I wind up with a little ridge, I can spray it and pin it to dry afterwards. Or steam it with the iron. The back will come out slightly wider than the 2 fronts, but I figure that when I add the button and buttonhole bands, more width will be added to the fronts anyway. Once I know what the final width of the back is, I can modify the bands accordingly. And then do the collar last. Wish me luck!