I finished the second sleeve on Underwood this morning.  The Cloudborn Highland DK yarn is 100% natural wool, so I was able to split-splice when joining new balls of yarn. This left only a handful of ends to bury.  The sweater was knit in one piece, so no seaming.  This meant that right off the needles, I was able to try it on.

A reminder that although the stitch gauge of the blocked swatch was unchanged, the row gauge tightened from 8 rows/inch to 7 rows/in.  Therefore, I added one row of knitting for every each of the body and sleeves.  I’ve taken photos of the unblocked sweater, and my husband thinks it looks fine.  I can tell that the sleeves and body are a bit longer than I like, and the sweater is bunching a bit under the arms.  The waist shaping is in the wrong place, so there is bunching around the mid-section, also.  The unblocked fabric is scratchy to the touch and does not drape.  The set-in shoulders look great, but do not sit flat without being blocked.  This baby definitely needs a bath.

So, into the plastic tub it went, with some nice warm water and Soak rinse-free soap.  I will be blocking the sweater this afternoon,  and share photos of the finished sweater in my next post.  I’m happy to get this finished, because the Gramercy Park lace sweater pattern is being released tomorrow, at PattyLyons.com, and I am ready to get started on this new project.