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  • “She’s got to go, Ted ..”

    "She's got to go, Ted ..""She's got to go, Ted .."

  • Cley Duck-fowler’s Gansey from Cromer Museum

    This Gansey is another gem from Cromer Museum. It appears that the yarn used was a mix of fibres, as the inside is a completely different colour from the outside. Wool & linen/cotton? This mix was sometimes known as Drugget & like a good pair of indigo jeans, the dye wears away with friction, leaving the ...

  • Rope & Ladders – variations on a theme

    Rope & Ladders - variations on a theme         

  • You could tell a drowned man’s port of origin by the pattern on his Gansey.

    You could tell a drowned man’s port of origin by the pattern on his Gansey.Possibly. Most men washed overboard were considered to be buried at sea. It was hugely impractical to transport a corpse & no parish would want to stand the cost of burying a stranger. There are over 800 graves in the churchyard at Old St Stephen’s Church, in Robin Hoods Bay on the N. Yorkshire coast. Many ...

  • ‘There was only one way to do it & that was the way everybody did it.’

    ‘There was only one way to do it & that was the way everybody did it.’Patterns were handed down by eye & word of mouth. A youngster would learn off her older relatives, cutting her teeth on small & easy stuff like socks,

  • ‘Those old lasses could knit anything.’

    ‘Those old lasses could knit anything.’Not every Gansey knitter was born to it; knitting was a universally activity and many a new bride was already a proficient practitioner before she married into a fishing family & had to learn how to knit the Ganseys required by her new family & community. One such knitter was told she’d never knit a ...

  • ‘Have you got a pattern for a Gansey?’

    ‘Have you got a pattern for a Gansey?’Know your tension. Buy a box of matches. Learn the stitch requirements of design elements & have a trial run, ie a tension square or a small project to find out what this means in your case. Hats & mittens are good. Find out about construction niceties such as gussets. You can ask about shoulder ...

  • ‘Patty Elder taught me well,’ he muttered.

    ‘Patty Elder taught me well,’ he muttered.It wasn’t only women that knitted Ganseys. I haven’t mentioned Alf Hildred. A trawlerman, he’d worked out of Great Grimsby & Hull before coming to live & work in Whitby nearly 50 years ago. He asked a neighbour, Patty Elder, if she’d knit him a Gansey.

  • Mucky old jumpers.

    Mucky old jumpers.Nowadays Ganseys are frequently constructed on two needles & sized for comfort rather than as close-fitting working gear. Occasionally knitted in cotton, or by machine, these fashion garments serve as a reminder of days gone by & keep the patterns alive. Things change.