Thursday, May 15, 2008

Starting My First Sweater

I received my order of Sapphire Heather Wool of the Andes yarn from Knit Picks and will be using it to knit up my first actual sweater. I love the color, and if the gauge swatch is any indication it's going to knit up quite nicely.

Right now I am knitting up the swatch between doing laundry and going across the street to check on my mother who just had throat cancer surgery on Friday. I haven't yet finished the swatch but already have a pretty good idea of the gauge. I'll finish the swatch anyway just to be sure.

As I haven't found an in the round sweater pattern that I really like, and don't especially like following other people's patterns anyway, I am just going to wing it and do a simple raglan style sweater. I may or may not put a couple of cables in it for style. Since it's my first sweater I figure I'm better off to keep it simple.

Wish me luck.

4 comments:

Kath said...

I haven't used Wool of Andes yet but I've heard it knits up beautifully and yes, Knitpicks has some excellent colors. Considering how reasonable their prices are - that yarn is on my list to try this winter.

Best of luck on the sweater, and more importantly, best wishes for your mother's recovery!

MotherHenKnits said...

For your first sweater you may like the patterns from Knitting Pure and Simple. They are basic, no fuss and very clearly written. Plus I think the men's sweaters are all knit raglan style from the top down. I'm determined to buy all of them eventually.

good luck!

Anonymous said...

Good luck! Keep us posted, I can't wait to see the progress.
How's your mom doing?

Knitting Guy said...

Thanks folks. I really do prefer to make it up as I go instead of following someone else's pattern. That way if I screw up I can always say "I meant for it to look like that" LOL

I am liking the WOA yarn. It does knit up nicely. I did screw up an increase right below the neck band and left a hole. I'm kind of glad actually as I was worried that the neck hole was too small.

I pulled it off the needles and tried on the neck before frogging and starting over. It fit perfectly so I was worried for nothing.

Mom is doing pretty well, thanks for asking. She's frustrated over not being able to speak (they removed her voice box), but she'll adapt in time. She's practicing with her voice synthesizer and I bought her a small dry erase board so she can write out whatever she wants to say without going through a lot of paper.