Best Friend Bag -- Blocking!

I finished the knitting on the Knitty "Best Friend" bag, and here it is blocking:


Before this I haven't truly blocked anything, ever, since the only time I tried it was a too-large acrylic sweater I made for my Mom when I was in college (blushes in embarassment). I knit yoked sweaters in the round and didn't block them. I crocheted a granny-square afghan and didn't block it. I knit a cabled pullover for a friend's toddler and didn't block it (shoulda, though). Lately I have mostly made scarves, hats and socks, and although I know that some would look askance, I don't really feel compelled to block them.

But there is no way this was going to go unblocked, since unblocked it would look all shrunken up at the bottom and stretched to attach to the purse frame at the top. Not the elegant look I was going for.

As I was pinning it out, I kept thinking of this post from Everwhelming Liz, in which she triumphantly pins her mittens into submission. Ha! Take that, you cables, and lie flat!

Today the tip of my right index finger is numb from pushing those pins through the knitting, towel, plastic bag and carpet and into the carpet pad. The knitting has taken its revenge on me.

Here's a close-up of the cable pattern:


Once it dries and the fog lifts, hopefully I will be able to get a decent outside shot, but drying on the floor, somehow there is not very good lighting. Where are those studio lights when I need them?

Next up on this will be sewing on the beads and then mattress-stitching it together, then sewing the lining, and assembling the whole shebang. Then I might make some matching fingerless gloves from the leftover yarn, putting this same (or a similar) cable pattern onto the gloves (hopefully they won't pull in so much that they ruin the fit). That pattern calls for this weight yarn, so that's a good start.