That is beautiful! Are you using cotton or wool? Traditional pattern, or did you chart it yourself?
I really need to get the inkle out from under the pile of knitting needles, and yarn.
Finally decided on a stitch pattern for the main body of the new sweater...(I think). It can tear out down to a row of plain stockinette above garter, if I end up hateing (sp?) it. Went VERY safe and conservative on this one. Again, couldn't find anything I wanted to lift straight off a gansey chart, so made one up myself. There are other patterns that are more striking, but wanted a non-tedious fairly quick knit. This is a deep inky blue-black yarn firmly knitted into a small gage - at at certain point, mistake-prone motifs are just best avoided altogether. Also, wanted a flatish overall design that would not sinch up like an accordion with alternating knit and pearl columns. Cables draw in too, and can make the bottom hem spring out. About four inches of knitting so far; progress should be faster from here now that the tentative decision has been made.
It's only yarn. I can knit another if I end up disliking it as much as the one recently finished. THAT gansey will probably get slashed down the front for an (at this point) very home-made looking cardigan. Will require steeking through the front tree motif, but I might actually wear it that way (at home only). Took considerable pains with measurement and calculations to get the neck comfortably low enough. It is correct as is, but I can't stand to have the wool neckband anywhere near my neck, and planned for it to be another inch-plus lower. It seems to pull up a bit anyway - maybe should have put some short-rows in the back, but that is certainly not typical gansey construction - they should fit just fine w/o that.
Ordered a cone of Brown Sheep in fingering wt., charcoal grey. IIRC, 2,800 yards, so in theory, should only need one cone. Looking forward to it's arrival. I needed two cones for the last two ganseys in Frangipani. At $60 something a cone, 500g only yields 1,200 yards (IIRC). Love Frangi, it is a densely twisted high quality worsted, but the sweaters are heavy as armor. The Brown Sheep wool will knit up into a very different garment, at considerably less cost.