getting ready

I took the Bog Jacket out of time-out thanks to everyone’s reassurances that it will grow when I block it, just like my swatch told me. I’ve already made it past the “thumb trick” section, and am knitting across the sleeves:

(Yeah, it looks a little weird at this stage). I’ve reached a point where I need to make a decision, though. Namely, do I want a contrasting band over the shoulders, as in some of the Bog Jackets in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books? Or do I just want a solid-colored Bog, with contrasting i-cord edges? I’m leaning towards solid, I think, but would love to hear other people’s opinions. I’m still left with another question, which is whether I want the edges to be dark or light:

The color on the left is “Marsh Sedge” (a dark green), and the color on the right is “Arrowleaf Balsamroot” (a light blue-green). I could see going either way. Thoughts? I’ve got plenty of time to decide, anyway, since I am about to embark on 3 weeks of serious project monogamy, and the Bog Jacket is not going to be my one-and-only. Nope, it’s time for:

Le Tour de Gansey, part deux!

I joined the Tour de France Knitalong again, and this year, I’ve got a very ambitious goal: in place of the tiny sampler gansey I knit as part of the Polka-Dot Jersey competition last year, I want to apply all those skills I gained and knit a me-sized gansey. Now, I am a pretty tiny person, as far as grown-up people go, but that’s still going to be a lot of knitting…a Green Jersey worthy sprint if I can make it, for sure! In preparation, I’ve already swatched, and in the last few days have gotten serious about planning everything out:

Here’s a closeup of the cartoon I’ve drawn of my gansey-to-be, complete with messy notes:

And here’s a closeup of the list of stages in this Tour de Gansey:

(I just noticed that I apparently have very strange ideas about numbers, and have decided that the second sleeve is “Sleeve #3”. Oops!). It’s an ambitious plan, for sure, and I’m not entirely sure I can do it during the timespan of the Tour. But hey, it’s a challenge, and even if I don’t finish on schedule, I’ll still get a cool traditional gansey out of it in the end.

I embark on Saturday, just like the cyclists in the real Tour. I’ll doodle around with my other works in progress until then, but once Saturday hits, it’s gonna be all-gansey, all-the-time around these parts. I’m excited!