Knitting: Brick Sweater

A few months back, I decided that I wanted to take up knitting. 

My mother taught me to knit a few years ago, and I made some scarves, which was fun. But really, what I wanted out of knitting was sweaters. 

I love sweaters. I'm always cold and a sweater is usually my answer to that problem. 

Unfortunately, I cannot wear wool at all, even in small percentages, so sweaters can be very difficult to find. I really prefer sweaters that are cotton or silk. 

Enter knitting. 

The yarn I used is a mercerized cotton yarn by Tahki Yarns. I bought it from my local yarn store, Uniquities. It's nice and soft and mercifully itch-free.

 
This is the second knitting pattern I've ever used (the first was a Miss Marple Scarf). I researched online a bit and discovered that a top-down raglan sweater is about as easy as it gets for sweaters. Sold!

This pattern is a free pattern called Brick.

I appreciate that the pattern was free, though I will say, it has some issues. For instance, those sleeves? They're done to the pattern specifications -- exact number of rows and everything. They're supposed to be long sleeves. Bit short, eh?

Luckily, I prefer three-quarter sleeves (though usually I prefer them just above the elbow.)

The sweater itself I left short on purpose to wear with all my high-waisted skirts (like here with my denim Hollyburn skirt.)

I used a TON of online tutorials and YouTube videos to make this sweater -- and it still took me two tries. The first try was error-riddled and when I got to the bottom, I bound off and realized I couldn't pull it over my head.

After unraveling the entire body of the sweater, I started over.

The second try went much better. And this time I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off, which I'd seen online a few times. Worked like a charm!

I mean -- don't get me wrong. The sweater still has a lot of mistakes.

But for a first try, I feel pretty good about it!

Here are my Ravelry notes (though this is probably more detailed.) Feel free to friend me. :)

Next up, I'm already about 75 rows in to the Miette Sweater by Andi Satturlund. I'm addicted!