Gansey

Sarah

I've had a lot of un-bloggable knitting going on lately, so of course I had to cast on for something new. I know I could probably crank out the last bit of my Minimalist Cardigan (one sleeve and I'm done) in a couple of days, but that's something I'm knitting for myself -- I figured I should probably spend my limited knitting time working on more Christmas gifts.

This is a special gift -- a sweater for my dad. I've knit him a couple before, but the first one was my first-ever sweater, and...well, it looks like a first sweater (worse yet, I kind of made up the pattern as I went along). The second just wasn't as good as it should be -- I think my dad deserves a really perfect sweater. Since he and my mom are planning a trip to Ireland, I think it would be nice for him to have a soft, tweedy gansey to bring along. The yarn is Rowan Soft Tweed, which is one of those Rowan yarns which debuts at an exorbitant price, then a year later is deeply discounted or on clearance everywhere. (Luckily, I picked this up on the discount side of things.) I like how it feels knitted up, especially at the slightly tighter-than-recommended gauge I'm knitting it at, but I don't really love knitting with it. It's not bad, but it's not one of those yarns your fingers will instantly fall in love with.

I'll be knitting the body of the sweater in stockinette, with a single column of purl stitches on each side mimicking a seam. The chest will have some sort of patterning, though I haven't decided what -- I've been looking through Alice Starmore's Fisherman's Sweaters book, and my Barbara Walker treasuries, for inspiration. Since this is such a chunky yarn, I want to keep things simple, and classic. I also want to actually finish this one in time to give it to my dad on Christmas morning. I think the last sweater I knit for my dad was supposed to be a birthday present...which I think it ended up being, the following year!

Comments

[Oiyi]

This sounds like a perfect sweater for him to bring to Ireland.