finished and blocked

I finished my sweater then promptly gave it a good soak then into the washer on spin cycle in a mesh bag, then blocked on the boards.  The sleeves grew by about 5 inches.  I liked that length in the torso but the sleeves............argh.
I could rip the sleeves and make them shorter. argh don't really want to do that.  Its knit with super wash wool, I remember reading an atricle on super wash wool a few years ago. Spend a couple hours on the internet looking for that article or something similar, find a couple patterns to knit next and some yarn.  Back to the problem at hand.......  Stretching is a charcteristic of superwashwool but drying in the dryer is also a characteristic of super wash.  The little scales on the fibers have been removed so the yarn doesn't felt it stretches instead. Another trip to the spa for the sweater, soak,  and into the mesh bag for a quick spin, then the dryer on extra low. Check the sweater every 5 minutes or so, restart the dryer, check again turn the dryer up to low, check again try sweater on, a cool damp sweater does not feel good.  Back in the dryer and turn the heat up to medium another 5 - 10 minutes and its perfect.  A warm wool sweater fresh from the dryer now that's cozy! That was a whole lot easier than ripping the sleeves.  

Thank you to the designer Jennifer Wood of Woodhouse Knits for answering all my questions about Ellington.  I will be knitting more of her patterns.
Its a good day to wear wool here on the plains. --Ann--

P.S.  I used 6 ball of Berroco Ultra Wool 219 yards per ball and I have 4 yards of yarn left!!  I'm glad I didn't make a larger swatch.