The Marriage Gansey

Think I've swatched enough yet?

Four different needle sizes and two different pattern layouts later.....





Casting on....

I love casting on for new projects, although it's amazing how often I end up ripping it off the needles and starting over before I'm happy with it.

This is the start of the front half of my welt. Split welts are a traditional feature of some fisherman's ganseys. After knitting up both halves, I'll join them together and start knitting in the round.

As this is a 'Sunday best' gansey, there will be patterning all the way up, rather than just on the top. And it's got a name now, too - it's the Marriage Gansey. Both open and filled hearts, marriage lines (those zig-zag lines representing the ups and downs of married life), and ropes (the ties that bind!) - enough symbolism for you?

Not yet.... there's the color - dark red, like old wine (some things get better with age). And our initials will be knitted into the side panels - his on one side, mine on the other. Ok, I think that's probably enough symbolism for now...

By the way... my needle size for gauge? Addi Turbo's in US size one, 2.5 mm. That gives me 7 stitches and 10 rows per inch.

The Frangipani yarn? It's the traditional 5-ply gansey yarn - 'fisherman's iron'. Very tightly and smoothly spun and about the size of sock yarn, but much denser. I thought it would be a rough yarn, but the swatches are very smooth and softened up after a bath in warm water. It's meant to be very hard wearing stuff. It's great for textured work - the designs pop out really well.

Of course, now that I've started, I want to continue on... but tonight it's off to guild and the start of the Circumnavigated Cardigan! I think I'm feeling like Marina did the other day - let's see how many new projects I can cast on at once!