What's Happened to the Cardies?

I hear you cry. It's been a long time since I mentioned wool, needles, knit, purl, bobble, bobble so I thought I should apprise you of progress in the wool department. The main reason for the wool silence is because I was crocheting a couple of presents for friends babies and wanted to keep it on the qt until I had passed them on. One has been delivered and the other is wrapped and awaiting a delivery slot (the crochet that is not the baby). So once the second one has been handed over I will post some pictures of the finished articles. So now that I have finished these I am back to my wavy sweater (you remember, the one where I couldn't work out the pattern?) and have almost finished all the pieces, I just have to complete the last bit of shoulder shaping on the front and then it's all downhill. Then I get to the bit I really enjoy and others (members of my knitting group, you know who you are) detest and that is the making up of the garment. I find myself getting inot a very zen place when it comes to finishing my garment. First you have the tidying up, weaving all the loose strands. Although because this jumper is stripped there are a lot of loose strands to waeve in, it may take me some time, but satisfying nonetheless. Next is the blocking out, this is where you can hide mistakes and get the pieces all into good shape and ensure that they are the correct measurements. This involves pinning each piece to the size you want it and then ironing it with a wet cloth. This not only fixes the size it also makes it easier to sew up because all the edges are flattened and you can see all the rows ans stitches more clearly. Once all the pieces have been blocked out you then have to do the neck (picking up stitches along the neck and shoulders). Finally, the sewing up and this is the best part. I use mattress stitch to sew up garments because it is the neatest way. The seams, if done well, are almost invisible. Here's a video explaining it and it shows how neat it can be.
So that's my weekend sorted out (bar a communion mass or two), sewing in the sun.