project: my first sweater, the beginning

I've knitted lots of scarves, socks, hats, and even a pillow, but I've never attempted a sweater... until now! Mom had a bag full of beautiful charcoal gray wool for a sweater she wanted to make for Tyler, except her ungrateful son (just kidding!) didn't want a sweater, so she passed it along to me to knit a sweater for Dan. Except my ungrateful husband (kidding again!) didn't want a sweater either... I think it's something about how I've never knitted something that actually came out the size I intended, and he's worried he'll end up with an ugly, wrong-sized sweater that he'll HAVE to wear out of guilt, since I spent 6 months working on it. That's fair. But I'm knitting the sweater anyway!

I chose this pattern from Knitty (with Dan's OK), which is a fairly plain zip-up cardigan with a cabled band at the bottom. I've finished the cabling and picked up the stitches along the side (not very skillfully, even though I gave it two tries... I'm trying to let my inner perfectionist go and see this as a learning experience!), and now I'm working my way up. The girth (is that the right word?) seems about right for Dan so far, so that's a hopeful sign.



And to help me get excited about this big project (I figure I'll be done by next winter...), I also made myself a pretty knitting roll to house my growing collection of needles, etc. Here it is unrolled, half-rolled, and all-rolled-up - I'm loving the yellow canvas lining with the red fabric: