I want to knit a sweater

...but the yarn doesn't agree it should be a sweater!

A few years ago I wanted to knit myself a sweater. Since I hadn't done it before, I thought I would start with an acrylic, so I chose some Bernat Soft yarn when it was on sale. I cast on to knit the Lacy Tencel Cardigan from the August 2008 issue of Knit 'n Style. I think I attempted it 2 or 3 times, before I finally conceded I should start with something simpler. I set the yarn aside.

Then a couple of months ago, I thought I'd cast on Mr. Greenjeans. It was going slowly only because I wasn't taking time to knit on it. Then on a weekend I'd planned to devote a good chunk of time to work on it, I discover a hole. I couldn't figure out how to fix it, I didn't want to tink it all the way back, so I literally threw the whole thing, remaining ball of yarn and all, in the garbage. Then I chatted with my friend a while, watched a bit of a movie, and decided I'd look for a different pattern.

I found it - Lace Edge Cardigan from the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of Knit Simple. I spent some time knitting up the lace edge. It was going well. Then, last Friday I was pausing during knitting to view my progress, and it occurred to me that perhaps I should have use the lace cast on. I contemplated starting over, but I decided against that. Instead, I decided I would do the lace cast on for the sleeves, but I would cast on the front the same as I did the back. Well, I guess subconsciously I decided that I needed to start again, because after knitting a few more rows, I realized something looked off. It wasn't a hole, but somehow I managed to add a stitch, and despite thinking I'd corrected it, I must have twisted a stitch. It looked odd, and while likely once the sweater would be done it wouldn't be very visible, I would know it's there and not right. So I've set it aside yet again.

Now I'm thinking that maybe the yarn is trying to tell me something. Maybe it just isn't sweater yarn. Or maybe I'm just being too critical. After all, is it realistic for my first adult sweater be free of visible errors? I don't know. But I think I'll work on some of my other projects before I return to this yarn.