Goa Sweater

It's about time I showed some recently finished knitting. Here we have a neck-down seamless raglan pullover made with GGH's Goa (50% cotton/50% microfiber acrylic). This represents my first time knitting a neck-down sweater and my first time knitting with Goa.


I want to design a class that helps scarf knitters transition to something a bit more complicated, namely a sweater. This type of sweater might be a good vehicle because a) there are no seams to sew and b) you try on the sweater as you go, so you know it's going to fit!

My first attempt came out quite well. My only problem was one of boredom. I intended this to be a stockinette stitch sweater; since I was learning a new technique, I didn't want a complicated stitch pattern. By the time I got past the armholes and the body & sleeves were on their separate needles, the sweater became a no-brainer and I got bored with stockinette. That's when I introduced two different stitch patterns: a cable and a slip-stitch rib. This type of sweater is traditionally designed with cables & such on the yoke (ie. upper half) and the lower half in stockinette. Mine is upside down. Oh well, I still like it - and it fits great!


The yarn is wonderful. GGH's Goa has quite a bit of elasticity (not as much as pure wool but much more than pure cotton), is next-to-the-skin soft and knits up quickly (3.5 st/inch). This yarn actually comes in three weights - 3.5 st/inch (Goa), 4.5 st/inch (Samoa), 5.5 st/inch (Bali) - and in a huge range of colors. I initially ordered only Goa because I was unsure of this yarn, having never seen it before. After making an entire sweater with it, I'm sold on the yarn and will be ordering it in all other weights. In addition to adult applications, these yarns work great as baby yarns because - get this - they're machine washable!