Let's talk knit-along.

I've been plugging away at the Goober's sweater (mostly unraveling the sleeve, at this point), and thinking about how I could get a major series of blog posts out of it. So of course my brain took it one step further and thought, hey, we could do a knit-along as I wrote the blog posts. Which is usually fun. Here's what I have in mind:

In terms of writing style, this new knit-along would run somewhat along the lines of the Steek-Along, in that I'll start from scratch with the gauge swatch. I'll record my thoughts on each step as I do them, and then everyone is free to follow along, or modify at will. For instance, for the gauge swatch I'll get into all the gory details of how I knit and measure, but everyone can do it their own way, or skip it altogether.

However, since the project itself caused some brain-melt last time, I thought we'd go with something really super-simple: A percentage system raglan pullover, as discussed and laid out in this article. (I wrote the article, and I officially give myself permission to use it.)

We'll take, what, a month, six weeks to plan and budget so we can buy the yarn, before we cast on. Sound about right? (I hate knit-alongs that give me no time to prep. I don't have a huge stash, and I don't have the cash in the budget regularly to just go buy a sweater's worth of wool.)

DETAILS:

-Size: Your own, or the size of a loved one you'd like to knit a sweater for. Because of the disproportionate head-to-body ratio on babies and small toddlers, this system doesn't work well for them without tweaking. But for anyone else, it's fine. In fact, I guess we'll do measuring for what size we want, as our first step. I'll talk about that a few weeks before the cast-on.

-Yarn: Whatever you want. We won't be steeking, so even slippery yarns are fine. Use whatever you like, whatever gauge you like. I will probably be knitting Cascade 220 if that matters to anyone, but you don't need to do the same. Medium to large size needles are a good idea, only so you can keep up with the rest of us. As for how much yarn you need, find a pattern for a stockinette pullover in the yarn you want to use, and use it as a guide.

-Skills: cast on, cast off, knitting, purling, a very few short rows you can skip if you want (back of neck shaping), grafting (underarms), k2tog, ssk. If you don't know how to do any of these things, you can relax, because I'll probably be doing detailed directions for all of them. I'm already planning to do video of my weird cast-on method that I've never seen anywhere else except "The Principles of Knitting". And like I said before, if you don't like my way and want to do it your way, simple enough: it's your knitting, do it your way.

EDITED TO ADD:  I've already had some questions about different necks and sleeve treatment. So sure, we'll discuss alternatives as we get to each specific bit of the pattern. It'll be educational! (Which is the whole idea, so thanks for giving me the idea.)

Beltaine (May 1) is a good day to start a new project, don't you think? Shall we make it a date? Who is with me?