My Little Gansey (マイ・リトル・ガンジー)

Remember when I made Hubs a gansey sweater? Well, I also wanted one for myself but in a lighter weight yarn. So, I picked up seven (7) balls of Drops Fabel yarn in colour 300 (a heathery chocolate) and proceeded to follow the pattern instructions for a M sized sweater (hopefully, it won't be too loose on me!😳😯🙇‍♀️). Using my Chiaogoo 4.0mm (US6) needles and a 37" cable: 

 

On 07/21/26, I finished the back yoke.

 

On 07/22/26, I finished the first repeat of the back armhole chart.

On 07/26/26, I modified the repeat where I only did Rows 11-14 twice while doing the increase in the 1st 11th & 13th row to meet the stitch count. I also finished the right & left shoulders and joined the front (using a 14" & 22" cable). Finished the initial 6 rows for the front (using a 22" cable).

On 07/27/26, I finished the front chart as well as repeated Row 11-14 of chart twice while doing the increase in the 1st 11th & 13th row to meet the stitch count. I also joined the front to the back (using the 37" cable I used for the back).

On 07/29/26, I completed 1.5 patterns within the chart pattern (FYI: there are 4 patterns within the body chart pattern). Up to this point, I used 2 balls of yarn and am on my 3rd ball of yarn. On 07/30/26, I finished the rest of pattern 2 and 1/4 of pattern 3. On 07/31/26, I finished pattern 3 and started pattern 4 before I realized that I was oddly off by 1 st so, it was time for me to "rest my eyes", especially since I had counted and double checked my stitches four! (4) times!😱😞😭🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ I had also finished using my 3rd ball of yarn right as I had 26 sts left to finish on the 1st row of the 4th pattern (using 4th ball now!). On 08/01/26, with rested eyes, I finished the half of the body; I was just so exhausted that day, I couldn't finish the rest of the body, including the ribbing like I intended to. On 08/03/26, I finally finished the rest of the pattern, including doing Chart Rows 1-5.  Then I realized that I needed to repeat pattern 1 again as my sweater was very cropped. So on 08/04/26, I finished pattern 1 (Rows 6-16, including the repeats). On 08/05/26, I finally got to the ribbing (which I changed to a split hem with a 3 sts overlap instead of a "regular" ribbing in the round & switched to my Chiaogoo 3.5mm (US4) needles (& 22" cable) which I did for 14 rows before working a double knitting (2 rows) and finishing with an Icelandic bind off. I managed to do the "front" ribbing. I finished the "back" ribbing on 08/07/26 as well as started on my 5th ball of yarn.

On 08/08/26,, I picked up for the neck edges and finished the neck ribbing (using my Chiaogoo 3.5mn (US4) needles and a 22" cable). Then, I picked up the sleeves (using my Chiaogoo 4.0mm (US6) needles and a 22" cable) and completed pattern 1 (of 4 patterns) for the sleeves; I also did the first decrease on Row 4 instead of after the first pattern since the sleeves were quite roomy already for me. On 08/09/26, I finished  pattern 2 and while working on pattern 3, I realized that because I did a decrease early, it threw off my stitch count for pattern 3.😳😱🤦‍♀️😞 So, to "fix" it, I didn't do a decrease in Row 24 and replaced it in row 35; and to get the stitch count back to a multiple of 4, I also did a decrease on Row 38. Finished pattern 3 on 08/10/26 as well as started on my 6th ball of yarn; also complete pattern 4 on the right side and half of pattern 4 on the left side. On 08/12/26, I finished pattern 4, repeated pattern 1 again and did additional decreases in Row 67 & 60, ending with 60 sts for the ribbing. As I started the ribbing (using my Chiaogoo 3.5mm needles & 22" cables), I  tried on my sweater again and realized that the sleeves were just too short. So, I did pattern 2 again (through Row 76) for 8 repeats as suggested as well as decreased 2 sts on each of the "break" rows to reduce my stitch count to 50 sts. I wanted a more fitted cuff so, I did 2 more break rows to decrease a total of 6 sts (purl row = 4 sts decrease & knit row 2 st decrease) for a total of 44 sts. Then, I saw someone's sweater where the cuffs were split and I thought that would also be a great idea for this sweater!😊🥰 So, I did the ribbing just like my bottom ribbing where I picked up 3 sts on each side and ribbed for 10 rows before doing the double knitting rows and bound off using the Icelandic bind off method. I finally finished the sleeves on 08/14/26 (and I just had an itty bitty bit of yarn left from my 6th ball!)

And now ... it's done!  I have my very own light weight gansey!🥳🎉🎊😁🙌 Unfortunately, now that I've completed it (and altered the sleeves), I'm not sure if I really liked what I did.😔😳😱😭🤦‍♀️🙇‍♀️ In some ways, I really liked how the cuffs fit; but ... Between the last pattern and the actual cuff, there was a 16 sts decrease over the course of 7 rows so, there's a little bulging part now. It's not super noticeable but, I noticed it.😔😳😱😭🤦‍♀️ And while looking it over, I also noticed that I had dropped a stitch quite a way back on my left sleeve so, there's a hole now!😔😳😱😭🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So, I took a few weeks to let it "sit" to see if it would be something I could "live with". In the end, on 09/01/26, I ended up ripping back the entire sleeve (both sleeves) and using my Chiaogoo 3.75mm (US5) needles (& 22" cables) did eight (8) decreases on Rows1-4, completed Pattern 1 & did another eight (8) decreases on Rows 11, 12, 14 & 16 before stopping for the day. On 09/02/26, completed Pattern 2 & did eight (8) decreases on Rows 20, 22, 24 & 25. On 09/03/26, completed Pattern 3, did eight (8) decreases on Rows 45, 36, 38 & 40, completed Pattern 4 & did eight (8) decreases on Rows 56, 58, 60 & 61. On 09/04/26, finished Pattern 1 through Rows 72 with no decreases. On 09/05/26, finished Pattern 2, ending with repeating Rows 68-72 & followed the decreases this time (total stitches: 44 sts). On 09/06/26, switched to my Chiaogoo 3.5mm (US4) needles and started the ribbing (just like on my original sleeve) for 5 rows. Then I decided to try it on only to discover that my sleeve was too long!😳😱😞😒🤨🤦‍♀️🤬 So, I gave up for the day. On 09/08/26, I ripped back both sleeves so that there were only 6 repeats of Pattern 2 and did the final decrease on the final row of repeat 6 (instead of Row 68) then re-did Rows 69-72 again (on my Chiaogoo 3.75mm (US5) needles), switched (back to) my Chiaogoo 3.5mm (US4) needles and finished off the ribbing (again as well).😞😒🤦‍♀️ Finally, my sleeves are D-O-N-E and look so much better now!😊🥰🙌🥳🎉🎊

Front

 

Back

 

Side

 

Cuffs

Here's my thoughts on the making of this sweater:

• I definitely like how it's much thinner and lighter than the original sweater I made for Hubs. I feel like I'll be able to wear it more frequently and not have another "travel" sweater.
• While I had expected to get a smaller gauge due to the lighter weight yarn, as expected, I still managed to meet the gauge despite using a thinner yarn (on the same recommended needle size). Here's what it looks like compared to Hub's sweater:

• Like all sweaters made with finger weight yarn, it often felt like forever getting through the pattern, especially in the body section. However, in reality, I'm quite surprise on how quickly I was able to start and finish this sweater. Amazingly, it only took me 17 (well, really, 24 since it too me forever to redo the sleeves) days to finish this one! 😳😱🥳🎉🎊 
• I oddly found the Fabel sock yarn that I was using wasn't as consistent as the original yarn I used (& purchased from Canada). It was more splitty and seemed to be slubby in some areas while in other areas, it was thinner than sock weight yarn. It could be just this colour way though (although I haven't used the other colours I bought yet so ... 🤔🤨).
• I found that even though the colour wasn't really "dark" (like navy or black), it was still dark enough that I needed a lot of light (and glasses) to knit with this colour to make sure I didn't miss stitches (or drop them!).😳😱😭🤦‍♀️🙇‍♀️ Despite all the extra light and glasses, it seems that I still managed to drop stitches!🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
• I really like the 3-stitch split hem (instead of the 5-stitch hem I did for my Mottainai sweater) as well as how the hem is actually completed before binding off (where you slip stitches for two (2) rows). It seems to give a "firmer" edge. I will try to remember this "tip" for future sweaters!🎗🥰