This pattern is a fantastic choice for a first sweater. The selvage stitch edges make for easy sewing up, and I got experience reversing shaping for the neck and armholes (hint: an Excel spreadsheet helps make this easy), setting in sleeves and knitting on a collar and button bands.

Modifications: I knit the sleeves at the same time and made them shorter by increasing every four rows instead of every six.

2/23/2012: Done! It just needs buttons and a good blocking. (The sides are the same length; they just don’t look that way in the picture.)

2/20/2012: Just about done -- need to knit collar and sew seams. I think it’ll look ok for my first cardi.