Practice a sweater?

I'm going to try some of my lonely stash yarn to practice a pattern from the 1981 magazine.

'Men's Boatneck Sweater'...worsted weight yarn, men's 40 inch chest, cast on 86 onto size 3 needles, raised rib as *ktbl,p1* for 3.5 inches etc.etc...

I'm learning ktbl, <--Knittinghelp.com video. I still don't know if I'm doing it right. When I do my regular purl, and what the video shows, it looks like a line of regular purls! I'll wait until I get another row up, but I might have to switch to regular k1p1...

I know this won't be a real sweater, and I'll have to unravel it later... but I really don't want to buy yarn then ruin it, or leave such an investment lay for a year because I can't figure something out. I did get J to consider some colors in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. He picked out Chestnut. Then I told him it would take 14 skeins of it to make a sweater his size... and he said he could wait 'till later...

in other news...
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dishcloths for mom, 1 done out of 4
slipper socks for me 50%,
ribbed hat 25%,
2nd knit mousie for kittens 50%

I've got too many needles in the yarn...