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"I would never feel sad again if I had a knitted frog."

Then there it was—my mother’s love, in the shape of a soft, green creature.

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Comfy Skull

Alexander McQueen Skull Knit Jumper

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Gansey Nerdery

Ganseys are actually a really clever piece of knitwear, okay? And I feel they deserve extra love.

Here is a Gansey:

Please excuse the crap photo, it's because it's one I knitted myself. They are traditional fishermen's jumpers that are designed to be warm, hard-wearing, and close-fitting enough not to be at risk of entanglement when using machinery.

While you can get fully-patterned Ganseys, most of them are half-patterned like this one. This is because most holes happen in the lower part of the sleeves and body, and plain stocking stitch is easier to mend.

The knobbly-bobbly edge is because I used a Channel Islands cast-on, which is traditional for Ganseys from Guernsey (which is where they get their name from), but not something you see as much with the variants from Cornwall, North-East England or Scotland (which are all Gansey hotspots). This particular Gansey is otherwise mainly Scarborough pattern, although the banding on the sleeves is more commonly a Cornish thing.

Ganseys are reversible, as there's no difference in the front and back, which spreads wear and helps avoid elbow holes.

They also don't have seams, as such, as traditionally they're knitted in the round as one piece. Like so:

There are 'false seams' up the sides, which are just purl stitches that help you keep your place in the pattern without needing stitch markers etc. when you're in the stocking stitch section. There are also grafts at the shoulders, and you pick stitches up around the armholes for the sleeves, which obviously does make a join, but there's no sewing required as sewn seams are inherent weak points.

Another thing Ganseys have to avoid weak points that might result in holes developing is sleeve gussets. They look like this:

You can also do a double gusset, by carrying on the false seam up the middle of the gusset as well, rather than just around the edges, which I did on the navy one, but alas I don't have any pics as it's currently packed away in a box somewhere and I'm not willing to go digging for it, so you only get to see the single version.

The gusset is knitted halfway as part of the body, then put on a spare needle or stitch-holder while the upper body gets knitted as front and back separately (you can apparently also knit the top part in the round and then cut the armholes, but cutting knitwear scares me), then the second half is knitted as part of the sleeve:

The false seam continues down the sleeve, which then gives a nice reference point for where to put thumbholes, if desired. It's very easy - you just switch to knitting back and forth for about 1.5"-2" before returning to knitting in the round.

The collar also has gussets, which helps it stand up. Those involve picking up progressively more stitches either side of the shoulder graft while knitting back and forth for a few rows, before you can pick up the rest of your collar stitches and do some nice ribbing. You can do this before or after the sleeves, as you prefer.

I don't seem to have a picture of it with both sleeves in situ, but yes, the cream one absolutely was a copy of James Fitzjames' Gansey from The Terror. If you're looking for a sign to make one yourself, do it - it's fun!

As a closing note, I wanted to talk about yarn. Ganseys are traditionally done in pure wool 5-ply, which is sort of between 4-ply and DK in terms of weight (broadly equivalent to most sports-weight yarns if you're either unable to get Gansey/Guernsey yarn or prefer a different fibre content) and very tightly plied. This, paired with the thinness of the knitting pins (aka double-pointed needles, usually between 2mm-2.75mm), gives a very tightly-knitted garment that is pretty windproof, as well as being water resistant and still warm when wet. Hence very suitable for both fishing and polar exploration. You could do them in oiled wool for even more waterproofing if you wanted, but I have no idea where to get pre-oiled yarn or how to oil it yourself, and honestly I can't imagine it would be necessary in most modern circumstances.

Unless you actually intend on exploring polar regions, in which case you could probably use all the weather-proofing you can get!

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Princess Grace wearing her Aran jumper during a sailing day in Monaco circa 1962 (she probably bought it, or it was given as a present during her visit to Ireland a year before, in June 1961?). Photos by Howell Conant.

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shrimp socks 🦐🦐

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i dropped by my favourite secondhand bookstore and found what is possibly the most incredible knitting book iver ever seen. that teaches you how to knit little gardens and sew them into a massive quilt 3d. the photos i took are atrocious and do NOT do this book justice

thats a PRIORY GARDEN WITH MONKS

IT EVEN TEACHES YOU HOW TO MAKE ALL THE TOOLS ABD BASKETS AND POTS AND PLANTS

LOOK AT THE SOME OF THE FOLIAGE

i have never been more upset to not have $30 ready to buy this. its incredible. i have to find it online somewhere. i knew the moment i saw this i had to share it with EVERYONE

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My strawberry cape is done!🍓

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some of my favorite woven tapestries, by Cecilia Blomberg:

Point Defiance Steps

Mates

Rising Tides

Vashon Steps

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trout sweater

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This is one of my favorite YouTube channels to reference when working on my vintage knitting machine. I was recently able to disassemble and fix my knitting carriage quite easily after watching several of their videos. It's a great resource that I recommend to anyone needing to maintain or fix up vintage knitting machines ♡

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cup with mini bird // lucyandjaneceramics

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Machine knit a cozy hood (hoodie, neck warmer) on the LK150

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New machine knitted hexagon granny square

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🐈‍⬛ Granny square kittens 🐈‍⬛

Pattern (images and word instructions in posts) via instagram carousel

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Compass Rose by Karin Åshammar/Virklust

Free Crochet Pattern Here

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“You complete me” moon jumper handknit by me.

Modelled by my love🌙

Available here

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Fibres

i have an aversion to manmade fibres. i don't like them. i recognise there are times when they are useful (and cheap lol) but mostly i recommend using natural fibres, like wool, cotton and cashmere. some of these are animal fibres so if you have made the decision to not use those, have a google. some are plant fibres.

polymer blends are acceptable sometimes but they are on thin ice. I am now going to explain in a haphazard way what different fibres are and what you use them for. this is very individualistic and there aren't really any rules. it is more like general convention, do whatever u want. knit with strips of binbags idc

will b edited later as i am only sometimes omniscient

wool:

great for warmth.

most wool now is processed, but if you can get the stuff or you spin the stuff with more lanolin (sheep grease) then it will be more waterproof.

this is good for jumpers, sweaters, cardigans. depending on the feel of the wool and the length of the fibre you will use it for different things. if it is itchy as hell you will not want to make a skin-tight jumper.

wool fibres act like little hooks to hook on to each other. this makes a close fabric. this is especially good for creating a pattern with different colours, as the gaps between different yarns will close more easily and seamlessly.

has a bit of stretch to it

washing - you can put this in the washing machine on a wool wash (or a cold or hand wash cycle). depending on what you have done, you might want to hand wash it (e.g. something very chunky). don't put it in the drier.

cotton:

cotton is lightweight. breathable. it is not very warm and tends to be more drapey than wool. it isn't waterproof and takes ages to dry.

if you are making big thick socks or layers close to your body for something like a hiking trip where you expect to be sitting in it wet for a while, don't use cotton.

cotton is great for a dress or similar. my mum made a few ties out of it.

it is not stretchy like wool. very nice for summer projects and layers.

can go in the washing machine!!! however depending on what you've created you might not want it to lol

cashmere:

fucking expensive

soft and usually very fine weight. keeps you warm.

often you will find cashmere in a blend. this is nice. often people will use this in thin, tight clothing.

has some stretch to it.

depends on quality (short cashmere is not as good as long cashmere but it is nice and soft and fluffy)

cashmere is sometimes a pain to wash (cold wash, ideally by hand. do not put it in the drier)

mohair:

very fine and VERY fluffy (also itchy depending)

there is a big trend right now (2023) for knitting loose jumpers out of thin light-weight mohair on huge needles. i think that's quite cute.

easily combined with another fibre to make something more dense but with extra fluff.

hard to wash (cold handwash usually and shouldn't go in the drier)

acrylic (or other plastic fibre):

this shit will not burn it will MELT

acrylic does not last (but it will stick around in landfill for years!). it can be itchy. it is not breathable so you will feel sweaty in a big jumper or socks made of the stuff.

because it is not breathable (does not really wick away moisture) it can also be stinky, so making something out of this stuff for an area that gathers sweat may not be ideal

my mum calls this stuff horrible plastic rubbish and ykw i agree but it has its place because it is CHEAP and DRIES.

i use it for waste yarn when i machine knit

does wash easily tho

dries very quickly

ideal for things that are going to get wet, like hiking socks and swimwear