This was the first sweater that I made.  It's a hoodie and it's made out of some horrible acrylic that I thought was going to feel a bit like terrycloth but is turning out to just be a bit fuzzy.  The pattern is from 'The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits.'  I think I made this sweater in 2004 but I can't remember for sure.

I made this sweater in just one crazy knitting weekend with my friend Carolyn.  It had a nice big gauge and I used some bulky yarn combined with some sport weight - both acrylic.  This sweater is quite warm and pretty comfortable but in retrospect I wouldn't put a rolled edge on a sweater that comes as low down my hips.

This was my first attempt at something lacy.  I made it from a Vogue magazine pattern and I although I was getting a bit more skilled at knitting when I made this project I still didn't feel confident enough to edit patterns.  As a result this sweater has very little shape and is a bit big (both due to the pattern - I followed the instruction for my size).  I also didn't realize how little the lace edges would show up with navy yarn.  I was still using acrylic when I made this project although this yarn is not as fuzzy as a few of my other early projects.  It is a bit heavy though which contributes to the overall non-fitted look of the sweater.

This was one of my better early projects.  I got the pattern from Knitty.com and I used cotton, which worked quite well for this project since I often wear it with summer tops.  This pattern has a bit of shaping and a bit of nice seed stitch detailing, I would certainly consider making it again, perhaps with a bit of modification to make it a bit fancier.

I made this wrap a while ago and I can't remember where I got the pattern from.  I strung beads onto the yarn to make the ends of the wrap and the beads were only slightly larger than the yarn so it was quite time consuming.  I don't think I would do that again.  Also, there was a misprint in the amount of yarn that was needed for the project so first I didn't buy enough and then I bought extra in bulk and had to much so I made this wrap really long.  Because it's made with a cotton blend its also a bit heavy - I didn't really learn until a bit later in my knitting career about the importance of fiber content. 

This project came out really well, especially after blocking.  The yarn is really soft and because it's mostly wool the wrap is also really light.  Also the pattern was just a two row repeat which means that I didn't have to carry the pattern around with me, which is also nice. 

This was the first time I tried a top down raglan, in fact every bit of this sweater was knit in the round.  I was really happy when I got to the end of the sweater and there were no bit seams to sew up, although the rounds were feeling pretty slow in the middle.  Also, its easy to get all twisted up when you are trying to knit a sleeve on DPN's onto a whole sweater.  Also because this was knit in the round I didn't have much control over the shape of the neck opening and its a bit high in the front which also makes it a bit scratchy.