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Gake

It appears Fall/Winter hit us today in the Lower Mainland.  For a little over a week we have had lovely, balmy 70- 80 degree weather (20-25 C).  This morning, on the other hand, we woke to light rain, clouds and 60 degrees (15 C).  So cooler weather is upon us, but me, I am working on a light weight summer top called Gake by Kirsten Johnstone.

As you can see below, Gake is an asymmetrical top knit in linen with a metal thread insert around the collar.  Should you take a moment to look at the photos on Ravelry (using the link above) you will see knitters have modified the pattern in several ways.  Some have made the sleeves the same, some have knit both sides in garter (the pattern has one side in garter and the other all purl stitches), and others have changed that seam down the middle of the front and back into something else.

Photo credit to yumikomama on Ravelry
Susan is the one responsible for this inspiration because she had knit a lovely green Gake for herself.
I had long admired her version where both of her sleeves look like the one on the right in the photo above.  (As an aside, the colour of the Annis I knit for her matches her Gake perfectly.  Subconsciously I more than likely had her Gake in mind when I purchased the wool so much is my infatuation with it.)

I had been thinking of making a purchase of linen yarn for months.  It offers such a lovely drape to whatever it is used to make.  But the Habu Textiles yarn used in the pattern was a bit too pricey for my taste; not to mention the knitter doubles the yarn to get gauge.  To my thinking if one could find a thicker yarn, the doubling would not be necessary.

As a rule of thumb it is my habit to look at all the yarn shops I can get to in a geographic area.  The Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) have a number of shops so it has taken me a bit of time to check out all of them.  This summer I found Depth of Field Yarn located on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis, a location where many Somali immigrants call home.  The neighborhood is lively with diversity and this yarn shop is joined to a furniture shop specializing in futons.  The adventure was in finding it.

While there I picked up enough yarn to make Gake.  The yarn I chose is called Cashmere Canapa by Hemp for Knitting.  It is made up of 60% cotton, 30% cashmere and 10% hemp and each ball has 120 yards/110 meters.  The colour is Rust.

I think the colour looks more like salmon than rust, but that's just me.
This yarn was the perfect weight to give me gauge without having to double it up.  The cashmere with the cotton creates a very soft feeling garment and it was on sale to boot.  Additionally, as noted above a metal yarn is used to line the collar.  SteveB's yarn shop had the perfect match to my Rust in Habu Textiles' Item #N-69B in copper and bamboo in the colour Terra Cotta.  The colour choices are limited in this specialty yarn so it was fortunate the match was so perfect.

Image from habutextiles.com

Here is the first half of Gake already off the needles.  The construction has the knitter do the right front and back as one piece, which is what you see below.



I am able to put it on and this side fits perfectly.  The left side is started, but I am contemplating my options.  Decisions about whether my finishing skills are up to creating a good looking, highly visible seam to put the two pieces together and the type of sleeve I want on this garment must be made.  Luckily the weather has cooled so this project can take a rest until after the New Year.  By then I should know how I want to proceed.

Susan thanks for the inspiration.  Gake has been a real dream to create so far.

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