Sweater from stash yarn

At the end of last year, I was sitting in my coffee place freezing.  Just like a cartoon thought bubble, a thought popped into my head:  I need a sweater.  Now, it's not as if I don't have any sweaters.  Of course, I do--I'm a knitter after all! But I needed a new sweater.  Luckily, I also have stash.  Some really old stash.  And since I'd just been informed that I would be out of work at the end of January, I decided that some stash diving was in order.

Well, I pulled out a lovely dark blue DK weight yarn called Merino Style from Knitpicks that I'd purchased eons ago.  Since I didn't have a pattern in mind and didn't want to search through all the pattern books and magazines I own, I decided to wing it with a top-down, raglan sleeve that I would design on the needles.  I knew that I wanted something simple style-wise; yet not plain Jane and it would have to look good with jeans as well as dress pants or a skirt.  I also decided that I would knit the sleeves before finishing the body.  I think as this as akin to knitting socks toe-up.  The body will be as long or short as the amount of yarn I have left after the sleeves. 

The first sleeve took me forever.  At first I was thinking I wanted a wide sleeve so I knit without decreases.  Well, it looked just awful, really frumpy.  I ripped back and decreased to taper the sleeve.  I still didn't like it.  Then I sat down with a few stitch dictionaries and found a pattern I liked.  So I ripped back again and this time figured out how often I needed to decrease in order to get down to a stitch count that would work with the pattern and wasn't too loose or tight.  The photo on the left shows the detail of the pattern on the sleeve.  I've got about 2-inches to go on the body before I start the lace pattern on the body.

It has been fun to mix up sock knitting and designing with knitting a sweater.  Especially since winter temperatures have arrived in the Bay Area.  I figure in less than a week I'll have the sweater I needed back in December.