Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ghia

I've been feeling kind of uninspired by all three of my current knitting WIPs for the last couple weeks, but almost finishing the skirt the other day lit a fire under me to get back to my Geno sweater, which I've renamed Ghia.  As I explained on my project page, in my family there's a Gino, a Tino and a Nino - but this is a very feminine sweater, so I gave it my family nickname, Ghia.  And yes, we're Italian! 

I'd finished the back about a week and a half ago, but was procrastinating about the fronts.  The pattern is a 26-row repeat, and not very easy to memorize for me.  But I've finished the first repeat, and I think it's lovely:


I've read that there are some problems with the chart for the right front.  This is the left front.  You really have to pay attention here:  there's just one chart for all the sizes, so the lace pattern isn't centered.  I'm making the smallest size and in some places, the first stitch is a yarn over.  In order to neaten up the edge for sewing later, I cast on an extra stitch at the side seam edge and am working this as a garter stitch selvedge.


As I usually do, I lined up a sticky note at the edge of my size so that I'm not distracted by stitches from the other sizes.  One of the tricky things about this pattern is that the yarn overs at the side edge are not always "balanced" by a decrease, so if you're not careful the stitch count can easily grow.  To remind me of places where I need to decrease an extra stitch to avoid this, I highlighted the yarn overs that are unbalanced.  Of course I made a mistake and highlighted one that is balanced, so I still have to pay close attention, LOL!

I put down my other sweater a few weeks ago after knitting the whole back and deciding it was too small, then ripping it out and starting over.  At that point the weather was warming up.  But now we're below freezing again!  March, why you gotta do me like that?!

22 comments:

  1. Your Ghia sweater looks as if it's going to be very pretty. It's a very similar lace pattern to the one I'm doing in the sweater I'm currently knitting... mine is just a single repeat of the lace up the centre front and centre back though, so no shaping within the lace required!

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    1. Ooooh I just looked at yours - gorgeous! Do you know what this lace pattern is called?

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  2. Hey, I didn't know you had Italian in you... we could be long lost cousins or something (ha, ha!). The new sweater is looking good.

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  3. It is a beautiful pattern repeat and does look like one that you need to concentrate over. Freezing weather? I'm planting my veggie garden today!

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    1. I'm so jealous - both of your weather and your garden!

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  4. You truly never cease to impress and amaze me. Your patience is astounding. I love how your Ghia is coming along ... what a lovely color and the stitch pattern is super interesting. As for March, bah! I could not believe the snow that we had last night.

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    1. I know - my brother-in-law sent us a picture of the snow! You guys have gotten so much more than us this year!

      Thankfully, each front is only 60 stitches wide, so it doesn't take too long to make it through the chart :-)

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  5. You've chosen again a very beautiful pattern, and the color - just G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S !!!, I love this color so much!

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    1. I love it too :-) I tried a bunch of patterns with this yarn, but none of them felt right until this one. I really wish this yarn hadn't been discontinued!

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  6. Hey! My dad's name is Gino and my uncle's was Nino! HAH! Isn't that funny.

    Condolences on the frog-a- thon!

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  7. I am always so inspired by your knits. Maybe one day you could do a knit along... something easy! This one looks lovely and I think the renaming is perfect!

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    1. Thank you, Kirsty!

      I did a knit along last year of the Miette sweater. If you look at the category cloud at right, it's tagged Miette knitalong. It was a lot of work! I might consider doing something easy though, if people found it helpful :-)

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  8. that seems like an awful lot of effort to interpret the pattern :/ even though the design is pretty, that's too much for me, at this stage anyway

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    1. Thankfully, each row (in my size) is only 60 stitches wide, and the wrong sides is just a purl back. Still, I have to be in the right frame of mind to work on this bit!

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  9. Yikes, your description of the pattern makes my brain hurt! But it's a beautiful stitch pattern and a lovely color! Happy knitting!

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    1. Hehehe - the good news is that the patterning is only on the fronts. The back and sleeves are stockinette, thank goodness!

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  10. The st pattern is very pretty and your sts are so even and flat.

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    1. They've been blocked, Kepanie! I'm not that perfect, LOL!

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