Introducing…the mini gansey that I knitted up over the course of the 2 day class with Beth Brown-Reinsel. Barely, that is. I booked at the end in order to say that I finished during the class. I had 15 minutes remaining when I casted off the neck. And it was not the cast off that I would have chosen, if this was a real sweater. I used the regular knit bind off instead of the sewn bind off. Then it was a leisurely finish to weave in all the ends. Oh-my-gawd! There were a lot of ends. At the end if each section, the instructions said “break yarn.” In that bitsy sweater, it was really obvious. I don’t think it would have been quite noticeable when working a larger sweater.
I swatched the moorit that I intended for a fisherman’s gansey on US #3 (3.25mm). It came to about 5.5 sts per inch. And it’s not showing off the textures as well as I’d like. I think both Ruth and Judith were correct. I need a minimum of 3 ply to make this work. And I had spun it semi-worsted, which didn’t help. I think worsted would be best. In any case, I’ll go down a needle size or 2 on my swatch to see how that works. If it shows it off “well enough” I might go ahead and make a gansey for myself, and get started on spinning the 3 ply worsted for a gansey for Martin. It won’t be an anniversary present, but a birthday one. Oh well. We are headed into the hot season in California. He wouldn’t be able wear it until at least October anyway.
I’ve been mulling over the stuff I learned in Michele Wipplinger’s 3 day Color Institute workshop and the 1 day Deb Menz workshop.
What’s a girl to do when she’s got over 800 miles to travel by car and has a lace pattern that she’s just gotta swatch right now? Cast on, of course. And I found that the sun visor makes the niftiest pattern holder.