It’s Sunday lunchtime as I write this, and the servers on which this website is hosted have been down for four long days now. I imagine that for a website this must be the equivalent of a general anaesthetic: one minute you’re awake and alert, and the doctor is asking you to count down from ten, then there’s a cold sensation running up your arm and suddenly you’re in a state of non-being. The hosts promised that things would be back to normal in three days, and yet, as the saying goes, here we are. Or rather, here we aren’t. Even now someone is probably reaching for a defibrillator, while a voice asks helpfully, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
Raindrops on Grass
Because of this, the blog this week is in the nature of a message in a bottle: I have no idea how long till anyone will be able to read it. So I’ll keep it short. Our thoughts and prayers are with all our readers caught up in the current heatwave sweeping up from North Africa, set to push temperatures in England and Wales up to an unprecedented 40ºC. It’s not forecast to make it this far north (we might get as high as a balmy 18-20º, something to remember in January when the sleet is piling in horizontally on bitter, 70-mph gales).
To keep your spirits up, I recommend following the election of a new leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party, and de facto Prime Minister, a process so drawn out it makes the ending of the last Lord of the Rings movie seem abrupt. The first televised debate had the contestants playing tug of war over an abyss, with the losers plunging to their deaths—no, wait, sorry that’s Squid Game. Though now I think of it, it would certainly liven up political debate considerably…
Thistle trying to hide
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TECHNICAL STUFF
This gansey is being knit for charity. The idea came from Deb Gillanders of Propagansey fame, and I’ll be giving Deb a guest spot to say more about this is future weeks. First, though, I have to knit it.
It’s in Frangipani navy yarn, and the pattern is taken from the Johnston Collection of old glass plate held by Wick Heritage Society. It’s the gansey of one George Bremner and I’ll say more about the pattern when I reach the yoke. There are lots of these caithness patterns still to try, so I’m grateful to Deb for the opportunity to knit it up. (In my affably muddle-headed way, I agreed to knit a Caithness pattern and then promptly forgot and started a completely different pattern, from Filey. So if you see that the title of this project has changed since you saw it last, don’t worry!)
The Funfair is in town
I’ve been contacted by a few people in recent months interested in knitting a gansey for the first time. So I thought I’d use this gansey as an opportunity to talk through the process in some detail, from start to finish (assuming we have a functioning website to share this on). For now I’ll just say that it’s for a finished gansey chest size of about 22.5 inches across when blocked, so I’ve started by casting on 328 stitches for the welt. At the body this is increased by 34 to 362 stitches (so, if you deduct 2 stitches for the fake seams, this gives 180 stitches per side.)
Good t have you back.
Thank you. I missed us too!
Yay! Gansey nation’s back!
Hi Lisa, for a while there I thought I’d have to take up another hobby!
Happy gansey times are here again ! 🙂
Hi Judit, that’s very kind. I was forced to consider the philosophical puzzle, if a gansey is knit while the website is offline, can anyone hear me swearing?
Oh goody! My favourite entertainment is back!
Cheers Lois, mine too. No, wait, that’s the one involving the cream cheese and the Hawaiian dancing girls – but I’ve said too much already…
Hmmm…… didn’t know that Hawaiian dancing girls wore ganseys. The things that I’ve learned on this site! Very educational!
Do you mean 22.5 inches across the front when blocked for a total of 45 inches around? Or is this for the from because you are knitting flat and not in the round? I have several cones of frangipani I’d like to get started with.
Hi Barbara, yes, that’s correct: 22.5 inches across the front when blocked and laid flat. This equates to 45 inches in the round.
I work to a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch. If you wrap a tape measure round my chest it comes to about 41.5 to 42 inches, depending on how many doughnuts I’ve been eating. I find a gansey measuring 45 inches in the round after blocking fits me comfortably, if a little loosely, which is my preference.
The bottom ribbing, or welt, is usually knit with maybe 10% fewer stitches than the body, to help achieve a snug fit round the hips and stop drafts.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to keep asking questions, I’ll try to answer them as best I can.
Hooray! I admit, I was getting worried.
Why would you not count the stitches for the fake seams? I guess that’s because you are counting pattern space, overall size having been decided already.
That’s generously large.
Will it be auctioned?
Hi Tamar, I ignore the fake seams as they mark the dividing line between front and back, and so are separate from the actual patterns. Plus they mess up my maths!
It might seem large, but I find when I wear ganseys this size they drape nice and comfortably. In fact, this is the most common size requested when I knit ganseys for other chaps too.
Don’t know yet how it will be disposed of to raise money – at least with a gansey, we’ve got a few weeks to make our minds up!
Whew, glad to see you back, I hadn’t checked into your site for about 3-4 weeks and then had that OMG moment wondering if you abruptly retired!
What a generous project – knitting a gansey for charity AND doing a tutorial along with it. Many years ago I printed out the tutorial you have on this site and I still refer to it as needed.
Hi Lynne, there was a time last week when retirement seemed like the easiest option! But it’s good to be back, thank you.
Hi Gordon, what size needles are you knitting this up on? I’m currently on my second (an Eriskay pattern) on 2.5mm needles and can’t help wonder if I should go smaller.
Hi Andrew, my standard needle size is 2.25mm – I usually aim for 8 stitches per inch, though this gansey is knitting up a little bigger than that. Though of course it’s entirely up to you!