Wolfe Island Gansey: Preview

This post could be titled, "What I Did with My Holidays". I knitted--a lot. OK, that's nothing new. I did, however, have to set daily goals and push a bit (with the aid of Audible.com) to get Isabel's new cardi done. Originally I'd intended to knit her an aran jumper, but when she got off the train from Pearson Airport, she made it clear that what she really wanted was the Wolfe Island Gansey. In red, please. Now, the prototype for this was knitted a little over a year ago (I worked on it at Rhinebeck) in Quince's Lark. That yarn, with its beautiful stitch definition and lovely softness is still going to be the first recommended yarn for the garment, but we couldn't get our hands on enough skeins of "Winesap" in a hurry, so we opted for Galway's Highland Heather in #1940, which I happened to have in my stash. It might be my imagination, but the Galway seemed a bit skimpier than it used to be, so I worked the cardi at 5 stitches to the inch, instead of the 4 1/2 that I used in the prototype. I made a few other changes from the original: the neck opening is slightly narrower, and the body is 1 inch longer. Two days ago I was done, and for the last couple of days the cardigan has been lying on a towel on our library floor with the space heater cranked up to the max. This morning it was bone dry and I sewed on the buttons. Yes, they are the same ones as in the mustard-coloured prototype. I keep harvesting them from one garment and sewing them on the next. They must be the universal button, because they've gone from my J. Jill jean jacket, to Twist Collective's Brookline, to the gansey prototype, to Isabel's new cardi. At this rate, my as-yet-non-existent grandchildren will be sporting them on some future sweater. Enough explaining. Here are today's pics.

Happy New Year!