Thank you so much! 
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I knit Felix and love tihe sweatr. I am not sure that it is a good one for a FIRST sweater, though. Maybe Slouchy Pullover from Churchmouse or Ranunculus. Getting an interchangeable needle set would be great, because you will need to find the correct guage. You might not use the Needles suggested by the pattern for the way you knit. The Slouchy Pullover is great because it does not need to fit so exactly
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Love Note is a very easy first sweater! Just saying… and it goes fast!
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If I can add, regarding alternating skeins:
- do it! Even if you think you don’t need to
- Staci (VeryPinkKnits) is my favorite online knitting teacher. She can help with anything! However…
- another way to alternate, especially in the round, is the jogless join. I just finished a colorwork sweater class and the instructor recommended this video. It is not difficult. I’d recommend trying it out:
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PS my first sweater was My Boy Lollipop. 2nd was the Main Squeeze and I’m still working that colorwork Humulus! Love doing sweaters now!
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MightyMommy – THANK YOU!!
I’ve never heard of the jogless join! I’ve tried other “jogless” techniques, but I haven’t liked the final results. Generally, I either accept color pooling, don’t knit with multi colored hand dyed yarn and/or avoid stripes.
This is amazing and definitely changes my knitting game!!
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I was kind of blown away. I hate carrying yarn up the side!
I will warn you though - don’t get all confident and start this method when you have ANY shaping to do. I am working Humulus right now, and did all of the color work with 1 skein, thought I was all smart and started to alternate as son as I got out of of color work, not realizing I had a BUNCH of short rows. UGH. frogged a bunch, and now LOVE IT.
Have fun!
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Hmmm…I notice most of these suggestions are for fingering weight yarn. That’s a Lot of knitting for a first sweater where you might want quicker results. There are a lot of nice patterns with medium weight worsted yarn such as The Weekender and Flax, both very popular by experienced designers. If you still want to go with fingering, sounds like Love Note goes quickly and being designed by Tin Can Knits will not have you all tied up in knots with bad instructions. You want to enjoy this process so a well-written and flattering pattern in a yarn you love is very important in my opinion. (Not that the other patterns recommended are poorly written - THEY ARE NOT - just that the thin fingering yarn they require takes much longer to knit). If that’s okay with you, knit on! Just as long as you know ahead of time:).
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Two more things quickly. I LOVE your chosen yarn. And with experience you can overcome less-than-perfect instructions if the pattern itself is beautiful and you really want it.
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I’ve got The Weekender by Andrea Mowrey of Drearenee Knits on needles, it’s turning out great and would be a wonderful 1st sweater. Good Luck with whatever you choose and have fun!
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The Australian yarn company Skein also has a great video on alternating hand dyed skeins. I’ll try to find the link and edit this post.
Here it is iflink works. https://skeinyarn.com/blogs/notions/should-i-alternate-skeins-yes-and-heres-why
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Hi TeaForMe-I just read your comment about Ranunculus. Can i ask what yarn you used? I have some Sylph and I think somewhere in MDK it was suggested that it could be used.
Any thoughts? Thanks
SKB
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Hi there, skb2714!
I actually used a worsted yarn for my Ranunculus (O-wool Local in Juneberry), but I have plans to knit a summer version (perhaps in Shibui Twig that I have stashed).
I think your Sylph yarn will work out just fine – I’ve seen so many versions of this sweater in so many different yarns! I think Midori’s patterns are brilliant in that respect. It’s easy but engaging top down raglan knitting for Ranunculus. No picking up stitches; several sleeve options.
Hope to see yours on Ravelry soon! (Unless you’re like me and rarely post☺️)
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As a general question to all (considering this is a first sweater thread): Any suggestions on the very best tutorial/video for picking up stitches around armholes?
I ripped out an almost completed Chaika because I couldn’t figure out how to pickup all of those stitches to start my sleeve. I’d love to make a Weekender, but I’ll run into the same problem. Any suggestions would be great.
In the meantime, I guess I’m sticking to top down raglan style sleeves😉
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Thanks so much for the encouragement. I’m going to just dive in.
Skb2714 on Ravelry
Susan
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I found this guide really helpful when I was making my first sweater for picking up armhole stitches (or picking up stitches in general) https://www.masondixonknitting.com/techniques-depth-pick-stitches/
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Thanks, Rayfiz! 
I remember looking at this article, but I think I was so frustrated at the time, I couldn’t give it my full attention. Instead, I ripped out my entire sweater like an angry child instead of putting it aside 
.
Sometimes I wonder why I keep this hobby… 
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I hear you about the frustration factor that can drive you to RIP. For me, knitting is the way I grow my focus and patience. Usually, as I sit and work the needles I am also watching Chinese dramas and since I don’t understand Chinese I am reading subtitles. Yeah, I know, crazy right? But I’m a happy addict and so it goes. However, when I check a couple of lines and find oopses I tink instead of RIP now and just back up and do the fixes, usually chuckling while I do it. (My husband says he can always tell if I’m tinking because of the laughing) Right now I am doing another Main Squeeze and that very simple seed stitch can really get to ya if you miss doing the first stitch right on a k1,p1 row. But it’s knitting and not a life or death issue. My Lama would say it was a good meditation exercise. Find the joy in the errors and you’ll be okay.
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I think that the Felix sweater is a PERFECT first sweater! I thought it was very easy to read and understand the pattern and it was very fast knit!
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I have officially started my Felix sweater! I nailed the tubular cast on (in two tries and with some practice). Currently waiting for one more set of needle cords to join my perfect cast on and actually begin the collar part. I’m so pumped to dive in!
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