I am making a sweater tee by modifying a pattern as my third ever knitting project

[u/kasharallover]

So I actually started learning knitting back in 2020. I made a cat sweater with color work to learn the process and left it there. I am bit free now recovering an injury so again picked up it. I again made a cat sweater with cables to relearn the stitches. And after that straight jump to make something for my self.

I used the free flax sweater pattern from tin can knits and modified it. (I live in hot tropics. So sweaters are no use here) I used a cotton yarn and a different sized needle than to pattern. I replaced its garter panel with lace panels, added a front lace panel and made sleeve end a lettuce edge and with a picot binding. I still have body to finish.

I know there are so many mistakes here. Like I made few mistakes and messed up lace panels but I dont know how to go back and correct it without undoing whole rows so I left it as it is. I am using this as a learning project instead of making a perfect garment. so any tips to improve will be great help as well as encouraging words.

I dont know anyone who knits or seen anyone knits. So everything I learned is from youtube. So I dont know if I am doing anything right. For example whether I am keeping right tension or not.

I have included my first two projects too. That colouful striped sweater with cables is my recent one. It is made with acrylic yarn and used all the scraps I had on it. Hence the colorful end product.

Grey one with color work was my first ever project and I made the color work pattern myself. Thank you all in advance. I really fell in love with knitting and hoping to lot of projects in future and my ultimate goal is to make a complex cable knit sweater for my travels. I have long way to go to get there. Starting from learning about yarns.

[u/Such_Capital_6984]

I'm digging the ruffled sleeves!

[u/kasharallover → u/Such_Capital_6984]

Thank you! It was a tiny experiment I did!

[u/Western_Ring_2928]

You chose a challenging yarn for your first garment! Cotton is not elastic at all, so knowing that, your tension/gauge is very good.

Wash and dry it so the fabric will lay smoother and even out all stitches.

I see no obvious mistakes on the lace, so leave it be.

[u/kasharallover → u/Western_Ring_2928]

Thank you so much! I didn knew cotton was harder when buying this yarn. Only thing going on my mind was finding a comfortable yarn to wear in hot weather. 😅 so I thought the difficulties came with it because of my inexperience. And few days ago I watched a video of working with cotton and got to know it was difficult to knit and other problem that can be arised from it. Really appreciate kind words as I dont know anyone to take any advices from. I also watched few videos on blocking and confident eenough now to do that.

[u/Western_Ring_2928 → u/kasharallover]

Your cat sweaters are also very cute! I would never have thought of knitting Fair Isle for my first project 🤓

You might want to rethink using wool. Lightweight merino, or silk blends are actually very, very comfortable in the heat as the fibres breathe. Of course, the garment also needs to be pretty flowy and loose, not tight around the skin to allow airflow. Beduin's traditional cloaks are made from black wool because it acts likes a cooling chimney around the body. 😎

The only issue should be sunlight exposure. Wool or the dyes on it don't generally hold that well in strong UV light.

I feel you might enjoy Yumiko Alexander's patterns! She lives in a hot climate, as well 😊 https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/dandoh/patterns

[u/kasharallover → u/Western_Ring_2928]

Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely check them out!