le Tour de Gansey, part deux: Stage Four

I’m taking a break from working on paper revisions (with the Tour de France in the background, of course!) to post some further coverage of le Tour de Gansey, with…

Stage Four: Pattern Motifs

Above the Definition Ridge (which we saw in Stage 3) in a traditional gansey, the knitting changes from plain stockinette to patterns composed of cables and purl stitches. Prior to the start of the Tour, I charted out some pattern motifs that would fit perfectly in the number of stitches I had in half of my gansey (excepting the purled faux seams). The pattern motifs are used on both the front and back of the gansey. My pattern motifs consist of a central panel of mountain peaks, bordered on either side by mirrored 4-stitch cables, with horizontal bars of purl stitches filling the space between the center panel and the edge of the sweater:

(This picture was taken several days ago…I’m actually quite a bit further, in terms of actual knitting). Here is a closeup of the mountain peaks motif:

And here is a closeup of the border motif:

Next up, in Stage 5, we create a little extra room for the arms in the form of underarm gussets. After that, we divide the sweater and knit flat, continuing the pattern motifs established here in Stage 4, before beginning the journey through the arms with the shoulder straps. Stay tuned!