Hi friends! It's finally time to block our Be Mine Sweaters and seam these babies up. I'm excited to see more of them truly come to life, yippee! Here are a few of my best blocking tips along with photos, see below. Then I'll guide you through how to seam up the sweater in the final video at the end of this blog post.

Blocking!

For anyone new to knitting, blocking is the process we use to set the finished knitted piece into the correct measurements by getting it wet. I use it to set curling edges to be flat and to spread open lace patterns. I'm not a big fan of heavy blocking because our yarn is so chunky - it can take a long time to dry AND I like the 'just off the needles' look as opposed to a flat pancake knitted look.

To get started, when you block, you'll need these supplies:

* pins, any type will do. I prefer ones that have a ball head so they don't get lost in my knitwear.

* a spray bottle full of water or a cup of water

* blocking mats, I used these. A towel also works great!

For the Be Mine Sweater, I decided to only block the body portion of my sweater, because that is the area where the edges are curling the most, as you can see in my photo below. The sleeves are not curling and will be easy to seam up as is, so I let them be!

I placed the body portions of my sweater on the blocking boards and began to pin the edges flat and into shape. If you like, you can use the measurements in the pattern to pin the bottom opening to match those measurements. So for the shorter version, that bottom measurement will be 17" (half the total circumference) and for the longer version 19" at opening. Use the photos below as a guide. You want to make sure your bottom opening edge and side seams lay flat. 

The above image is exactly what I did when blocking my sweater - follow this. THEN the fun part! I like to flick water from my cup right onto the edges of the sweater to get them wet. So I did this along the side seams and bottom edge. You can also use your spray bottle here. The edges should be pretty wet to have them then dry into place. I do not block the body portion but you can of course do this if you prefer. This is the funny method I like to do but as always, you're free to do what calls to you and we're here to answer and questions. Do this for both your front and back sides, then let your sweater dry. This will probably take a day or so. After it's dry you're ready to seam!

Seaming

Key things to consider:

* You'll need embroidery floss to seam up the edges of your sweater - helpful if it matches your yarn! Any strong yarn will work, just do not use the Spun Cloud yarn. 

* You'll also use your darning needle here.

* Below is a photo showing you exactly WHERE you will be seaming.

* I show you how to do the blind mattress seam stitch in the above video. 

Alrighty, that is IT for today and for this KAL. I can't wait to see these come to life, hopefully this week! Thank you so much for joining in on this with me. I'll post a big round up of everyone's sweaters in the next week or 2. The cardigan knitters will just be a few weeks behind us. Thanks again!