(A)symmetrical Cardigan

Hello! Another new member to this KAL here.

I've decided on the asymmetrical cardigan for my first project from this book (there will be many more). I'm very excited to try it, since it will be my first sweater ever. I am going to make one major and several minor modifications to the pattern.

First, the major modification. I don't look funky or interesting in funky or interesting clothes. I look weird. Since I'm about 98% sure that I will look unintentionally lopsided in this sweater, I'm going to make it symmetrical.

Minor modifications:
1. I'm going to use the slightly cheaper Karabella Aurora Bulky instead of the cashmere. The reasons are 1) as I mentioned, it is slightly cheaper, and 2) I have never knit with pure cashmere before, and KAB is an old and trusted friend. I will have enough problems what with this being my first sweater and all.
2. I'm afraid of sewing on the button band, so I'm just going to cast on for it along with the fronts and knit it along with them. (I might stick another buttonhole or two in there while I'm at it.) I won't bind the button band off; I'll leave them on a holder when I BO the front necks. After I knit the collar, I will graft it to one button band, sew around the neck with freeloop backstitch, then graft to the other button band. I'm thinking double chain selvedge for the free edges on the fronts.
3. I am concerned with the CO and BO halves of the waistband matching. I hate the way tubular CO for double rib looks; that slanty stitch drives me nuts. In my swatch, I used double alternate cable CO and decrease BO, and they're very similar but not similar enough. I think I'm going to stop knitting just before the ribbing begins on the bottom back, then knit the ribbing separately and graft it on, so the whole bottom edge will be a CO edge.

Stuff I'm still thinking about:
1. I haven't done any measuring yet, but I'm short and will probably need to shorten the sleeves. The sleeve cuff is very long, so hopefully I can just take a few inches off of that.
2. Side seams: backstitch or mattress stitch?
3. The sleeve seams scare me, since it will be a CO and BO edge I'm seaming together. Are there particular CO and BO methods that are best for this? Does it not matter, since whatever technique I use will be hidden by the seam?

ANYWAY.... sorry about the long-windedness of this post. Here's the swatch:





Tags: Aysmmetrical Cardigan_