The Sweater Continues After the Family Fun

Ahh.... ten days of family holiday fun.  They all left Monday, giving me a week to myself.  Of course, the Universe and it's great sense of humour, has given me a cold.  However, even though I feel like crap, I can still knit.

So, my gansey is coming together nicely; literally coming together.  I finished the front with shaping for the neck.  It wasn't hard at all; however, I got a bit obsessed that my front wasn't looking like the one in the picture and that my decreases were wrong.  I should have just plugged away at it because it all worked out fine and it looks like the picture.

The next part to tackle was attaching the front and back with a horizontal shoulder strap.  This was definitely a learning experience.  The directions from the book were not clear to me; so, I looked in "Knitting in the Old Way."  These directions made more sense.  However, I didn't like the way the join between the body and the strap was turning out.  It wasn't a nice, horizontal stocking stitch.  I decided to play around with it and see if I could get what I wanted.  I eventually did.  I don't know if there is an easier way but I settled on: RS, slip first stitch from right needle to left, K two stitches together.  Knit strap in pattern up to last stitch in strap, SSK.  Slip first stitch from left needle to right, insert left needle in front first two stitches on right needle (like a SSK) and knit together (this is actually the first stitch on the next row).  Turn work to work WS.  Move yarn to front, slip first stitch from left needle to right and knit strap in pattern up to last stitch in strap pattern.  Purl two together, turn work and repeat. 

In all, I think it turned out pretty good.  You can still see my earlier work as I was too lazy to rip it out and start over.

Today I'll start the neck band........