A sweater in the making: first post

I know I should be finishing one of the many work-in-progress projects I have, but inspired by my previous post I've decided to start a new sweater for my husband. Don't ask yourself why am I always knitting sweaters for him, against the advice of so many knitters who never knit large projects for other people, and considering that he has never been too enthusiastic about it. I'm not a wise person when it comes to my husband and knitting. So here I'm again... set on knitting him a sweater he truly loves. Here I must clarify that he does wear the sweater I've knitted him a lot, but I feel he doesn't love it enough. I know I don't, that sweater is far from perfect.

So here I begin documenting the whole process of knitting a sweater. Something a lot of other knitters have attempted and that I, although not explicitly, had promised not to do on one of my first posts, the one where I stated my intentions on writing this blog (the one about not adding more useless information to the ocean of useless information that abounds on the web).

This post is going to be the first one in a series. You didn't expect me to finish a sweater in a single post, did you? I know I tend to digress and ramble and end up writing posts that are too long, but... even if I didn't I wouldn't be able to do it.

1st step: Choose the pattern

Durrow by Jodi Green is very popular on Ravelry. There is a good reason for that. Can you believe the beauty of that cable? And it is free. You'll find some complains about the pattern not being very well written and I suspect that most people who don't complain didn't use the pattern, but instead went along and added the cable to a well-tested recipe of their preference. This is precisely what I intend to do in order to make my life easier and avoid unpleasant surprises.

This sweater is begging to be done using the classic recipe by Elizabeth Zimmermann for the saddled-shoulder seamless sweater. If you've read my previous post, you'll know I'm already acquainted with this construction, it is the one I've used for the first sweater I've finished knitting successfully. This is good news.

I'll be doing some swatches later on. Not only to check the gauge, but most importantly to check what looks good in the yarn I've chosen (read along). I need to choose the right size for the ribbing, as the yarn has a very different gauge from the yarn used in the original pattern and in addition do a swatch with the cable and check if I can use it or not. There are still important decisions to be made that depend on the swatch results. The most important one will be if I'll use the Durrow cable, a different one, or simply do a simple rib stitch all over. I must confess at this stage that choosing a pattern is usually, the first, second, third, sixth, eleventh, ... step in the process of knitting a piece. I'll probably be frogging my work as I change my mind about it a couple of times too. God only knows what I'll finish knitting, could be mittens instead. That is what I love about knitting, it is a creative adventure all the way.

2nd step: Choose the yarn and needles

Actually, I've inverted the order and chose the yarn first. This is bad and should be avoided, because I'm not even sure if this pattern can be done with the yarn I've chosen or if it will look good. I predict a few problems: (i) gauge, my yarn is bulky, and the cable probably requires more stitches than go in the sleeve; (ii) colour, the yarn is a very dark colour and slightly variegated, it is probably not the best yarn to show off the complex cable. Any of these problems may mean I'll be forced or just compelled to choose a different pattern, since I'm set on using this yarn.

Oh, I forgot to mention the yarn! It is Mecha by Malabrigo in the colorway Paris Night. This may be the last sweater I'll do in chunky weight yarn at least for a while, because, in my opinion, sweaters look much better in worsted weight yarns (or even lighter), even if it's a lot more cumbersome to knit them.

If following a specific pattern, you may need to knit a few swatches before picking the needles, but I'm using a percentage recipe so I can pick my needles from the start. They'll be 6mm ones as recommended by the yarn maker.

I'll be knitting some swatches and let you know my conclusions in the next post of this series.