Design: I wanted a design that would go with almost anything- jeans, slacks, night out, whatever- I'm a little disappointed that a simple sweater for a man without any girly-cables or flashy 1980's style colors isn't the first thing you find when you search. I guess there's no market for normal anymore.
Construction: I wanted a sweater that's easy to make, and one that fits without being baggy in odd places. I opted for raglan style sleeves because with knitting in the round, it's easy to add stitches up to the point where the sleeves separate from the body of the sweater. This is a top-down in the round sweater, so I placed markers on the needles after finishing the neck to help define the sleeves. Top-down construction is a easier to fit as well while you're making it: you can try it on as you go to ensure a perfect fit. The neck, sleeves and waistband have to have the right proportions (thanks to my wife for eyeballing it for me).
So, because I went so slow, everything was perfect from beginning to end... Or not.
Problems: 1. The sleeves kept getting too skinny too fast- at one point, they were squeezing my forearms, at another they were too baggy. The trick is to decrease raglan sleeves quickly near the armpit, then don't decrease hardly at all until halfway down the forearm, then again at the wrist (slightly- I was surprised that from the forearm to the wrist was almost the same circumference). I think I pulled the sleeves out about 5 times before I finally got it right. I could have made 2 more sweaters. Oh well, lessons learned.
2. How do you finish sleeves and waistbands? I decided to knit the ribbing twice as long as I wanted, then fold it back on itself (towards the inside), and bind off using a 3-needle bind-off. This solves a few problems- stretched out sleeves won't ever happen, and the sweater becomes warmer because the ends are sealed off. I'm still working out what the final pattern was, and I'll post that soon.
