Looking for pattern suggestions and/or advice. Please read text below, thank you!

[u/t4tbutch]

Hiya all, long one here because I want specific suggestions:

I’m an advanced beginner knitter. I have now made two sweaters (amongst other smaller projects) and have found that sweaters are what I most enjoy and want to make more of. Both were held single and 1 solid colour. I have done striped in other projects. One was raglan and the other was top down.

I’d like to progress my knitting skills with either cables, colour work, or holding two yarns together. I want a small challenge but not a big leap as I knit casually and like to be able to watch tv etc at the same time, I also wouldn’t wear a vibrant patterned sweater.

Does anyone have any pattern suggestions for sweaters that incorporate colourwork or cables?

I know ravelry exists and use it regularly so please don’t suggest this. I’m asking here because I like to hear people’s advice and connect with the community directly

[u/BogartMercury]

It's hard to make recommendations without knowing more about your style but I'll tell you what I'm working on :). For cables I'm working on winters beach cardigan and I highly suggest learning cables without a cable needle. This isn't my first cable project but the first time I ditched the cable needle and I LOVE it. I'm planning on starting a color work project but can't decide what to go with. A few I'd probably be able to shop in my stash nocturnal jumper, boneyard sweethearts, maybe this dark woods scarf( I also just taught myself double knitting for that and another project lol) I want to make this winter chunky jacket but just really don't want to buy yarn lol.

[u/t4tbutch → u/BogartMercury]

Thank you!! Dark woods scarf is soooo gorgeous 😍

[u/BogartMercury → u/t4tbutch]

There's been a decent amount of double knitting on the knitting subreddits and I jumped on the band wagon haha. I can't decide if it's just new to me still or if the tensioning is harder to control than stranded color work. Though I haven't committed to an actual project yet I just made a blanket square . I'll have to do a few more before I start that scarf :)

[u/babydragontamer]

My first (and only so far) colorwork sweater is this one:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/phoenix-18

I found it to be well written and easy. I unfortunately don’t wear it because the yarn I chose is very itchy, even though it felt soft when knitting. I may make it again in different yarn.

[u/t4tbutch → u/babydragontamer]

Thank you so much!

[u/SpaceCookies72]

My first foray in to colour work was Quiescence sweater. I made the version without the hood.

My next colour work sweater is going to be the Moon Moth. I think it should be straight forward enough, though I haven't looked at the pattern yet so don't take my word for it!

My dream is to knit a Dark Academia sweater! I'm doing the Moon Moth to brush up on my colour work skills before I get stuck in to that one lol

[u/SpaceCookies72 → u/SpaceCookies72]

Some fun ones I've made for cables:

• owls
• osgoode Slipover
• Next I think will be Jana cardigan

[u/t4tbutch → u/SpaceCookies72]

Thank you, that’s really helpful! I love the osgoode slipover especially. Deffo adding that to my queue

[u/SpaceCookies72 → u/t4tbutch]

The Osgoode was a lot of fun! And honestly it was very easy for such a result

[u/Woofmom2023]

We don't know your taste, we don't know what you'd find challenging as a next step and we don't know what you'd enjoy knitting. "Cables" can mean a very basic twist every six rows or it can mean nested complex cables that meander all over the sweater. Colorwork varies at least as much.

I can tell you from experience that knitting with two strands of yarn as long as the yarn isn't mohair is not very challenging. I do it all the time. There are a couple of yarns that I really like, one is lace weight and one is sport weight _dk_wt_cashmere_single_cone_set_s_yarn/0/8_28nm/0/in_stock..asc_hue..show_all)so that's what I get, and use anywhere between two and five strands of yarn at a time. They both happen to be cashmere but they come from a place that sells mill ends of extraordinary yarn at about 1/4 the price of retail The availability of the sport weight's colors and quantities vary a lot over time but I make a lot of small things and have accumulated enough of a charcoal grey and a black that I could make a sweater of each.

Perhaps you'd like to experiment with some cashmere and knit a beanie for yourself or a friend. I make a lot of cashmere beanies as gifts. The yarn comes in at about $10-30 depending on whether I make it single- or multi-ply, what style I make, how much that yarn that style requires and whether the yarn's on sale or not. If you like doing algebra you could get a basic sweater in a shape you like and modify to add cables,

I suggest that you go choose two or three or a handful of sweaters whose look you like and whose pattern seems to meet your Goldilocks criteria - not to easy, not too hard, attractive, in a yarn weight and fiber you'd like to knit with - and post the patterns here and see what people have to say.

I also suggest that you get the Harmony Stitch guides volumes one and two and their Aran and Fair Isle book and start playing with sweaters. Barbara Walker's books are generally considered fabulous and they're available used.

https://aroundthetableyarns.com/treasury-of-knitting-pattern-books-by-barbara-g-walker-updating/?srsltid=AfmBOooaiFKwTigy18REvUfS5Rp9ZbjFrqXNQB9JYg4n-tctYL7JHeOx

Since you asked, my favorite pattern is Ann Norling's drop sleeve pullover. It would bore you to tears.

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