Hi! For a first sprite, this is looking pretty good. I think you did a great job on the hilt! You're right, though, that the shading on the sword looks a little weird. On a sprite this small, dithering is hardly needed at all. You should try going over the shading,but without using dithering. It'll make your sword look less grainy or noisy. Also, dithering is usually used to portray a soft or curved surface, which I'm guessing a sword shouldn't have. The way you shaded it makes it look kind of cylindrical.
On another note, the outline is a little jagged at some places. This might have been from you trying to make the shape as similar to the original you drew on paper, but you have to adjust it a bit to the limitations of pixel art. It's not really clear what form you were going for, but here's an edit I made with adjusted lines and flatter shading.
I hope this helps!
