Home / Your first sweater

Your first sweater

A simple guide: choose your sweater, pick a yarn, and make your own pattern. Three steps, start to finish.

1. Choose your sweater

A raglan is the friendliest first sweater: the sleeves and body grow together along four diagonal lines from the neck to the underarms. Pick the one you want to wear.

Then pick the direction. For a first sweater, I always recommend top-down: you cast on at the neck and knit down in one piece, so there are no seams to sew at the end.

The best part is that you can try it on as you go. Yoke too shallow? Add more rounds and increases. Body the perfect length? Bind off and block. My first sweater came out very oversized, and I'd much rather find that out at the yoke than at the end.

Top-down also helps when you're not sure you have enough yarn. Crop the body, the sleeves, or both, and the sweater ends where your yarn runs out, not halfway down the last sleeve. I always recommend knitting the sleeves first and using whatever is left for the body. I'm short, so a lot of my sweaters are cropped anyway, but if you like yours full length, plan ahead and get enough yarn.

Read the whole story: Why Your First Sweater Should Probably Be Top-Down

2. Pick a yarn

Look for a gauge of about 18 to 20 stitches per 4 inches: that's worsted. Big enough to move fast and fine enough to wear indoors.

Shop links may earn me a small commission, at no cost to you.

See all worsted yarns from my partner shops

3. Make your own pattern

Now, don't be afraid of this part: this is where the magic happens (or, honestly, the science, since it's just a math problem). All you need is your measurements, or a standard size, and your gauge. The Raglan tool turns them into a pattern made just for you: the cast-on and every increase for your size, stitch counts at every stage, your finished measurements, how much yarn to buy, and a written plan to tick off as you knit.

Download it as a PDF and knit from your own pattern.

Make my pattern

The first sweater only has to teach you that you can; the second one gets to be perfect.

More for a first sweater