My first cardigan - the Shalom Cardigan.
This was an amazingly quick knit - especially since Mom and Dad went camping all weekend and took Buddy with them. I took full advantage of the time alone and knitted, watched a lot of Gilmore Girls and gorged myself on Doritos, donut holes and Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
I read a lot of project notes on Ravelry before casting on for this and made a few popular modifications. Instead of casting on 67 stitches, I cast on 77. The pattern also suggests casting on 15 for the arm holes but I only cast on 10 and reinforced them with a garter ridge.
I used the most popular yarn for this project - Cascade Yarns Eco Wool. A cardigan for less than twenty bucks (fifteen for the yarn and four for the button) with only two ends to weave in and no seaming makes for a pretty fantastic first. The only downside to this wool is that it still has a faint but distinct farm scent to it (yikes, thank goodness no one was home when I soaked it)...fortunately, I love this cardigan and it will get lots of wear which, I hope, will fade the smell!
If I were to knit this again I would buy two skeins and make it a little longer (I made it about ten rows shorter than required and only had about three yards left after bind off) and would also make the sleeves maybe three quarter length.
And because most of my things are on their way to England, I actually had to go out and buy something to wear under this!
