Scooter's Riddari is Being Blocked

I finished this last night. I was worried that it would be too small and too long but once it was soaked, spun to remove excess water, and pinned out, the measurements are perfect. I use 6 blocking wires in total. 2 - 18" wires for the body as I don't want to stretch out the bottom edge. I use two 36" wires in each sleeve and just stretch them apart. I'm OK with the cuffs on the sleeves and around the neck being stretched out.

I did 8 German short rows across the back after joining the sleeves and before starting the yoke. This blog post explained the process and this blog post clearly explained the wrap and turn technique (so no holes will show). I didn't worry about the ratios as I did the short rows before the yoke. I just calculated 1/3 of the front stitches and started there.  I recommend you 'pin' both those posts in Pinterest as it took me a while to find the exact explanation I needed. I also did a stretchy bindoff for the neck.

The Icelandic Léttlopi yarn softens so nicely when wet blocked. There's also a fuzzy 'halo'. If you have pets that shed, it will never be noticed on a sweater like this - LOL.

The arrows point to the places where I did a wrap and turn starting a third of the way across the stitches on the front then 3 stitches less each time. It adds length to the back so the collar in the back will be in the proper place and not sag down.

The extra rows did add yardage so I really did need a few yards of the 8th ball of yarn in the main colour. Fortunately I had some of the same colourway left over from Skip's Riddari. It was a different dye lot but it was far enough away (the last section of grey yarn before the collar) that one can't tell. The blue yarn I used in the yoke was also left over from Skip's Riddari. For some reason I had purchased 2 balls of it (the pattern calls for 1 ball for all the sizes) so had the second ball in reserve.

I sure hope Scooter likes it. I love knitting these sweaters. I did this one in 12 days. It helped that it was a size small. I really should knit myself one of these.

We are having a really blustery day today. So far not a lot of snow accumulation but high winds are really whipping it around and causing drifts here and there. Buses are cancelled and most schools are closed in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) except, of course, our board. It's the third time in two weeks the buses haven't run.

We decided to cancel our spinning group (Whitby Spinners) tonight and I've already received word that the Shuttlebug Guild has cancelled tomorrow afternoon's meeting.

It's a great time to do some stitching and puttering around the house. So far today I've made a big pot of soup; done a load of laundry and hung it in the basement; soaked, spun, and blocked Scooter's sweater; swept and mopped the floors; done a bit of stitching and watched a FlossTube video; taken photos of the sweater that is blocking; processed the photos; and created this blog post.

Now back to my stitching.