Sweater saga: Begin!

So I've been wanting to make a knitted sweater for... Well, a long time. And mostly I'm lazy and know that it will take me forever but I'm also partly scared of the difficulty level and the cost of the yarn. I don't really think the knitting will be hard, I pretty much have the hang of most knitting techniques except for colorwork, but I do know the construction will be difficult. I'm not a sewer, so the seaming and general putting together directions will be challenging for me. I find picking up stitches to be hard, trying to figure out how many stitches will cover without puckering, but also make them neat and even. But no excuses. I just have to try because I'll never get good at it if I only listen to podcasters talk about their sweater making but never so it myself.

So what got me going finally was a sale! The www.jimmybeanswool.com email showed that the Lorna's Laces Green Line DK http://www.JimmyBeansWool.com/knitting/yarn/LornasLaces/GreenLineDK.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=23576 was on sale for $7.50 and though there aren't many colors left, there were plenty in a great smokey violet color, Blackberry. I have a jacket in a similar color that I am wearing out. So that would make a sweaters worth around $83 and that sounded affordable. I know I could get Cascade 220 for less but I don't love the feel of 220 and reviews of Green Line said it was soft and nice to work with. They also said it bleeds badly so I may wash it before winding it, we'll see.

So knowing what yarn I was going to get I searched Ravelry for DK sweaters, I wanted something fairly popular so there were notes and reviews and people I could tap if I had trouble with mine and the one I liked the most was the Kingscot cardigan http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/index.php/component/content/article/60-winter-2008-patterns/135-kingscot-by-norah-gaughan- by Nora Gaughan on Twist Collective. It's worked in pieces and seamed, which will be good experience for me. I do want to do a top down raglan with minimal seaming but maybe for the next sweater I do. After picking out Kingscot, I realized the Green Line worsted was also on sale and would actually be a but cheaper but I couldn't find a worsted sweater pattern that I really loved. The Kingscot will be perfect because there is some cabling and patterning on the back for interest so it's not just miles of stockinette that might be a bit boring.

So the yarn is ordered and is on it's way, I'm crossing my fingers that the bleeding isn't too bad though some said it was literally rubbing off on their fingers while they worked with it.

Maybe I should finish my two shawls I'm working on before starting this sweater.