So, since I’ve been knitting for a couple of months, I thought, “Hey, I can knit. Why don’t I try a real project! Everyone knits sweaters so it can’t be that difficult, right?”
That was on Thanksgiving. It’s been a couple of months and I’ve been through a few additional projects but I just have to keep coming back to this sweater. I’ve finished the back and one sleeve and I’m working on the front. I found the pattern at Lion Brand yarn’s website. They have a ton of free knitting and crocheting patterns so I’d highly recommend it to anyone.
The pattern is called an Alpine zip-neck pullover. You can find the full pattern here

The materials needed are:
Size 5 needles
Size 8 needles
Blunt needles
A 10″ athletic zipper
5 balls of wool-ease yarn in Oxford grey (the darker color)
3 balls of yarn in Grey Heather
Note: with multiple balls of yarn, make sure that each color group comes from the same dye
lot. Otherwise, your sweater will have random sections of slightly different colorations

I’ll talk about the sleeve today.

Here’s the pattern:
SLEEVES
Make 2.
Sleeve border:
With size 5 needles and A, CO 48 (50, 52, 54) sts. Work border same as back, end with a WS row, end off A. Change to size 8 needles and join B. K 1 row, inc 1 st at end of row-49 (51, 53, 55) sts. Cont in St st, inc 1 st each side every 4th row 16 (17, 18, 19) times-81 (85, 89, 93) sts.
Work even until sleeve measures 19½ (20, 20½, 21)” [49.5 (51, 52, 53.5) cm], ending with a k row.
Work sleeve pat as follows:
Row 1: With B, p across row.
Row 2: Join A, k1, *yarn back (yb), sl 1, yarn front (yf), sl 1, yb, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row. Row 3: With A, p1, *yb, sl 3, wrap yarn around needle, p1, rep from * across row.
Row 4: With B, k across row, dropping extra wraps to make long loose strands in front of work.
Row 5: With B, p across row.
Row 6: With A, k1, *yb, sl 1, insert needle from the front under the loose strand and k the loose strand and the next st as one, yb, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row.
Row 7: With A, k1, *yf, sl 1, p1, yf, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row.
Row 8: With B, k across row.
Row 9: With B, p across row.
Row 10: With A, k1, *yf, sl 1, yb, k1, rep from * across row.
Rows 11-20: Rep Rows 1-10, reversing colors.
Row 21: With B, p across row.
BO in k.

The pattern isn’t very difficult as long as you go slowly and make sure you understand what it’s saying.
Honestly, I’m excited to have a complete sweater done soon but I’ll warn you that knitting a sweater can be incredibly boring.

Well, this is the end of part 1 of the ongoing sweater saga.

Happy Knitting!!
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