Wahoo and hallelujah!

The pieces are all done for the MIL sweater! No more endless black stockinette stitch! (Well, only a little: the collar which has to be knitted on after the rest is put together.) Thank you, Great Goddess of Knitters for ending my misery!

Now comes the part I need help with from you other Knitting Goddesses. I haven't sewn a sweater together since before I was married (and that was 22 years ago). Help!

Here are my first and most basic questions:

1) Do you block it before you sew it together?

2) How do you put in a zipper (and what kind of zipper should one buy)? (I've NEVER EVER dealt with a zipper before.)

3) Any helpful hints on the proper order to do it in? It's shoulder seams first, right? But then what? Pocket? Zipper? Sew sleeve seems and then attach to armholes? I'm lost in a sea of black yarn here.

P.S. Just got my brand new copy of Arctic Lace and I'm having all kinds of fun picking out a pattern for my Qiviuk yarn. I think I'm going to modify an existing pattern because I really want a stole but need to stretch the yarn a bit to reach those dimensions. Of course, this will undoubtedly get me in a ton of trouble but, hey, it's only Qiviuk, right? LOL

P.P.S. I have no idea why Blogger is running all my paragraphs together--I've got about four returns between each one and it's ignoring them. Sorry for the difficult reading!