A Shoal Of Ganseys

Well, this weekend was brilliant. We went off up to the huge skies and heavy downpours of North Norfolk and I went to the Shoal of Ganseys exhibition at the Sheringham Mo museum. I wasn't sure what to expect as I'd never been to the museum before but I had a brilliant time. For a start, there was no one else in the museum at all! I'm not usually so antisocial that I only enjoy things when there's no one else there, but it did mean I could have a really leisurely browse and take all the (people-free) photos I wanted, without feeling rushed!

The main part of the museum, the ground floor gallery, is home to huge lifeboats - oh, and knitted bunting to honour the gansey exhibits:

The operations manager, Philip, told me about the history of the building and talked me through how they came by the exhibition: partly lent by the Moray Firth Gansey Project, then supplemented with their own local exhibits and patterns. The Moray Firth project looks excellent and you can find out about it here: http://www.gansey-mf.co.uk .

In each huge lifeboat, jumpers are displayed from Scotland, Norfolk and the North of England. The majority of them are jumpers which are worn and holey, which adds to their charm. Then, upstairs, there's a tech point with links to the Moray Firth project and - gasp of excitement - a sample box with patterns from all around Britain knitted up for reference. I thought of Louise of @CaithnessCraftCollective as there was a Caithness sample, as well as this local one:

 

There's plenty about the history of the gansey, and the information boards go well beyond the basics. There was a really heathy and welcome focus on women's contributions to not only the knitting itself, but the sea-faring life of coastal towns, as well as photos of the 'herring girls' who knitted some of the jumpers, without patterns. I particularly liked the idea of the 'knitting sheath' - a kind of implement to make your knitting portable! It hooked to your belt and had a hole for the needles to sit in. I'm sure there'd be a market for these today! The bulk of the jumper could be pinned to your own belt so that it didn't hang, heavy, on the needles as you sat on the sea wall, or walked around the town:

There's a case of local patterns, too, as well as plenty of description of the different designs and what they symbolised: rib bars to suggest marriage and children; lightening and hail stones; diamonds.

I would heartily encourage anyone to go and see this: it's a fascinating, thought provoking exhibit with lots to see. It's on til the 10th September and you can find out more about it here: www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk.

 

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In Which I See Some Valentine's Yarnbombing

 

 

 

Here's my Louisa Harding Hiking Hat, looking out towards Blakeney! It was a gorgeous day, with a dark, bright light - still winter, really. And, below, the cheery sight of some Sheringham yarnbombing!

 

These were at the crossroads by the station, just in time for Valentine's Day!

 

 

There's so often some fabulous yarnbombing in Sheringham: I've blogged here about knitted fish, flags and now hearts! Whoever is doing this, I salute you - it's really cheerful and lovely to spot it. The hearts in the bushes were gorgeous. Sadly, it's all been taken down now, but I'm sure it made other people smile as well as me! It's also inspiring me to mount a knitted onslaught on a local landmark ... ;)

#HandmadeMonday - My Hat, At Large.

Finally, the Louisa Harding Himalayan Hiking Hat is done! This took three skeins of Debbie Bliss Blue-Faced Leicester Aran (from Les Tricoteuses in North Norfolk) rather than the two skeins the pattern asked for. Frustratingly, the third skein was needed for only two or three rows of knitting - but the pompom took rather a lot of wool. It has been pointed out to me that the pompom may be, er, a little outsized . . .  but I *love* this hat. The pattern is a good mix of cables, rib and bobbles. It's easy to do and the yarn is lovely - really warm, with a lovely texture which isn't too silky or floppy.

I was so pleased to see snow, so that we could go off and photograph it out and about! If you want to make one of these, see Louisa Harding's page about her fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Care, a really worthy cause. This hat is 'Parju', and the pattern for this, plus 5 others, can be found here: http://www.louisaharding.co.uk/macmillan/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, what to knit next? This brilliant charity-shop purchase by my GF has given me an idea:

 

 

 

 

I feel a tea cosy coming on . . .  How can it be that I have never knitted one of these? Scary thought: could it be that I am turning into someone who knits from those "Knitted Bazaar" books?! Help!

 

Happy Knitting: what have you made for #HandmadeMonday?

#WIP Wednesday - simple crochet blanket - & a knitted mug

 

This is a treat for myself - like I need one, after Christmas! - a Fair Isle mug, from Blacks. Not my usual shop of choice, but I spyed it from afar. In the sale, too! Hurrah! It's actually huge - I had to peer down into it to see my coffee - but I love it.

 

Today's WIP: a simple crochet baby blanket, for a friend whose baby is due on, er, 25th January! I am making this up, so pattern will follow. I had a yarn emergency at the weekend, as I left my other WIP (a Louisa Harding Himalayan hiking hat) at my parents' house and only realised when I got home - tragedy! Still, I popped out to a trusty charity shop and bought two crochet hooks (which I bleached throughly - should I admit to that?!) and then bought the yarn for the blanket and got going.

 

 

Finally - it's always good to see a knitting-themed display - and this one is in Holt Library, North Norfolk, to launch their Monday Knit & Natter (clearly a more sedate occurrence than our Stitch & Bitch!) I really want to read Rachael Herron's A Life in Stitches (left hand side of the display) as I've made one of her patterns for a friend and I read her blog, about her writing, knitting and life with her girlfriend. In the corner of this picture is a book I actually got for Christmas - Claire Montgomerie's Knitting Vintage. I'm sure I will write more about this last, once I get the blanket...and hat... done!

 

So, that's how my 2013 has begun. Hope yours has got off to a similarly good start.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

 

#HandmadeMonday - Yes, I Can Actually Complete Knitting Projects

 

Oh, my goodness - I'm glad this bauble is done! It was *way* harder than I expected: it's on 4 DPNs for a start - which somehow seems a lot of fuss for a little bauble - and it is basically all casting on and off . . .  and has a *chart*! Fouf. Still, it looks cute now, though I wasn't feeling quite so fond of it last night, as I struggled to knit around the polystyrene ball (yes, the top segment is knitted once the polystyrene ball is in) while trying to keep track of Hunted...  The ball was harder to find than I expected, too - but they had loads in Something Special  in Feathers Yard, Holt (where they also sell some nice James Brett yarn and great dress-making fabrics). I was going to buy about 12 balls and make a garland - I'm so glad common sense kicked in and I thought I'd just try the one...

 

 

A bigger achievement, now: my GF's jumper is done - woo hooo!  This has been on the go for a while. I wish I could say it's been a pleasure. Actually the yarn itself has been: I didn't use the Sirdar Chunky that the pattern was written for, but some gorgeous Sublime Merino Chunky which is pure wool. It feels just luscious. However, the making of the jumper was a drama! Firstly, my GF is a size 14, but I had to undo part of the back and reknit it as a 16. Then I nearly ran out of wool, even though I'd bought TWO extra balls, and the requirements were the same for the 16 as the 14 . . . I think this is a feature of Sirdar patterns as I also ran out of wool when I made my own top similar to this one: I used the proper wool, too, for that one and the lovely @SmilesALot very kindly sent me a rescue ball from her stash to complete it.

*Anyway*, also, on the jumper above: I knitted what I thought was the front, all the cables etc, only to find that it was only the back! I obviously hadn't looked carefully enough at the pattern, but I could already see that the wool situation was going to be tight ... so I had to unpick the top and shape the neck to turn the cabled back into the front, and then knit a plain stocking stitch back to save wool. It seems to have worked, although I didn't plan for the fact that cables pull the knitted fabric in rather, so the SS back is a little wider than the front - but actually, although I worried about it while stitching it up, you can't tell.  I was asked, plaintively, a fair few times by my GF whether she would be able to wear it at Christmas and now - hurrah - she can. So, overall, I'm quite pleased - but I am also relieved it's worked out so well! Christmas can go ahead, after all!

 

 

 

Nothing like #FO Friday - A few crochet snowflakes...

 

So, this is what I've been doing recently - making Christmas decorations. The pattern will follow - now I've done six of them, I think I've got it sorted out! I'm sure it counts as a #FO, even if only one is technically finished (all those ends....!).

 

These are made with more DMC Natura cotton - I love this stuff. It's the same as the cotton I used for the crochet collars in my earlier posts. It's not too shiny, and isn't so fine that it's fiddly. These work up quite quickly; I think I made three during Downton Abbey ;)

 

Oh - and a couple of pictures from the fantastic 1940s weekend in Sheringham, North Norfolk, earlier this month. Creative Crafts, Sheringham's wool shop, had a fabulous themed window, in which my mother recognised various styles of outfits she had worn as a child! Sadly no knitted swimsuits (yes, she wore one of those) were on display, but there were plenty of 1940s patterns to see:

 

 

She pointed out that she still has the Crochet Stitches booklet you can just see in the bottom right hand corner here  - though sadly no patterns like these, for Fair Isle berets. Mum remembers having one my Grandma had knitted her, but sadly the patterns are long gone. We both loved the vintage-style jumper you can just see in this shot:

 

 

Now, I'm aiming for ten snowflakes, so must get back to it  . . . .

 

 

 

 

A Lovely Cromer Cafe, a Bit of Knitting, and a Great Use for a Jam Jar

 

Ah - the end of the summer over the North Norfolk coast. As the sun went down, my fab Lady Friend pulled two lovely, icy G & Ts from her bag - making use of the jam jars from our delicious Staverton ewe jam. This is made in Suffolk - hurrah! - and we buy it in the lovely Coffee House near us. I was quite impressed with her upcycling ;)  Needless to say, like all food outside, they tasted just delicious.

This was our view:

The weather then turned a little bit chilly, so we went to Norwich and Cromer, rather than trying to sit on the beach. I managed, as always, to buy some lovely Sirdar Click DK wool for a Bronwyn Lowenthal jumper I will start soon in Jarrolds - where this sweet sign demonstrates their knitting skills:

 

More to come on the new DK jumper soon - my mum is making one first! Spotted this great piece of graffiti near St Peter Mancroft church, near the market:

 

 

We also discovered a *fantastic* cafe in Cromer, called Huckleberries. Here is my mughugger paying a visit:

 

 

This is one of my better BlackBerry photos: we're outside, here, having just eaten a scrumptious piece of caramel shortcake (in fact, only my mum's is better). The coffee was really good (by which I mean a two shot cappucino and nice and strong) and the tea cosies, for tea-drinkers, were knitted! Love it.

 

So, er, not so much knitting in this post.I have finished my Sarah Hatton jacket... but just as I'd officially finished it, I realised it is so bulky that I have to sew the cuffs in their turned-back position and buy a button or pin to keep it closed. I tried to show it off at Stitch n Bitch, but it was rather unwieldy and, I fear, it looked as though I'd wrapped myself in the dog's blanket ... but cuffs, and a pin, will sort this out, I'm sure! Wish me luck ;)

 

 

 

In Which I Venture to Les Tricoteuses & find yarnbombing in Sheringham...

A lovely sunny day in Holt last week - and a browse in a lovely wool shop:

I was really keen to check out this shop properly - I love the name (with its connotations of gallows knitting) and Chapel Yard, its location, has great little shops and galleries. The huge window shows the lovely yarns inside.

This is a pretty good generic picture, actually, of all the Places To Buy Yarn that I like - the gorgeous coloured patty-shaped balls of pure wool. This shop has an excellent range of luxurious wools - everywhere I looked there was more! It was great to meet Mary Pembleton, the owner; she turned down her German rock music to talk about the shop, our dislike of acrylic, "squeaky" wool,  and showed me her newest arrival - *British*, no less - Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran yarn, in gorgeous autumnal shades -

I want to go back and buy the mustardy colour to make some gloves I've found a pattern for in Bronwyn Lowenthal's Love to Knit  - Mary has knitted the swatch here in red and it feels dense and lovely and woolly! She has the Debbie Bliss accompanying pattern book, too. Bravo, Les Tricoteuses! www.lestricoteuses.co.uk

The knitting theme dominated our trip to Sheringham, too; luckily, my Lady Friend is a patient partner. First I had to snap this part of the sea front mural:

But then - huge excitement - we saw more Sheringham *yarnbombing*: fantastic knitted fish and starfish on the seafront -

Aren't these great? I wonder if it's those @NorfolkNinjaKnitters again ;)

On a rainy day, we went to Norwich. While the Lady Friend had  a tour of the Cathedral, I paid a visit to Jarrolds, a great independent with lots of lovely Sirdar wool and good haberdashery bits too. Had a crochet conversation with the sales assistant who was wearing a black crochet collar that she'd made herself. Then, a trip to the Cathedral refectory:

And a scrumptious cheese scone:

I love Emma Bridgewater's crockery - though the use of this Biblical quotation is rather surprising, as the second part of the verse from the Song of Songs reads, "For I am sick of love." I suppose that's why only the first part is on the plate!  I know there's no mention of a Wednesday #WIP - but that[s because my Sarah Hatton jacket is still .... still .... still on the go! 

Been Caught Knitting - Out and About

Recently I've got a bit over-excited when I've seen hand-knitted or crocheted things in public - must be something to do with Knitting In Public week earlier this month! Saw these lovely crochet blankets in a sunny corner of the gorgeous gardens of some almshouses when exploring some Hidden Gardens last weekend. Seeing these really made me want to make a crochet blanket, something I haven't done since the birth of my first nephew, seven years ago. I wouldn't have gone for the bright colours here, but they look great against the geraniums. The view from this bench would be hundreds of roses in yellow, red and peach - fabulous. I saw a friend looking at the same garden, and she was wondering how soon we could put our names down for these houses! We're not 40 yet, even, but hey - never to early to start planning which almshouse to retire to!

Once again on the theme of Been Caught Knitting, here is a shot of one of my mug huggers, held by my patient girlfriend, on the Sheringham seafront! It was a bit blustery for June so we really needed a coffee. Out of shot here is a lovely new bag of yarn from Sheringham's wool shop, Creative Crafts, to make the aforementioned girlfriend a jumper. A good day out!

Now for the most glamorous location that one of my mug-huggers has made it to:

New York! Sadly I didn't go on this trip, but, hey, at least my knitting did!

Last pic for this post: here is the intrepid New York mug-hugger in Christopher Park, New York - an important location in the history of the gay rights movement. It was here that the notorious Stonewall Inn was located, and this was the destination of the first American gay rights march in 1969. Does this count at yarnbombing?!

My plan for my next post: to photograph some more knitting and crochet while out and about. I will ask people's permission - but I love spotting hand made things and hearing about how they're made. Fingers crossed that I find some willing specimens!

Graffiti Knitting hits North Norfolk

I wonder who has knitted these? In Sheringham this week, I saw at least 5 of these lovely knitted crowns, many complete with jewels and glittery bits, between the station and the beach. There are no signs or stickers around them, and the window of Sheringham's wool shop, Creative Crafts, is giving nothing away: it advertises a weekly Knit n Natter, but I can't imagine its usual clientele doing anything as subversive as yarn bombing street lights with freestyle crowns. They are fab! They are glitzy and jaunty and somehow really cheering to see. I think this is the first time I've actually spotted some graffiti knitting without being told that it is there. So, three cheers for the Sheringham Graffiti Knitter(s), whoever you are! I think these are just great!

Having seen these, I began to take more notice of the murals and artwork in Sheringham  - resulting in a rather grim plaque on the Art Trail:

The bronze plaque on the left says that the fisherman on the right are wearing traditional "ganseys", or knitted jerseys. Apparently, the complicated Aran patterns were so that the women could identify their men if they drowned - they would recognise the pattern! Eeek! And, sure enough, though my crummy BlackBerry photo doesn's make this clear, the two men on the plaque have got jumpers with different patterns on. What a horrible thought.

However - who would have thought that Sheringham was so arty? - I *then* came across this just fantastic piece of beach hut art:

I hope the owners don't mind me using this here - the doors were locked and there was no-one around. The back ground is yellower than it is here and the whole hut is a lovely primrose colour, with this black silhouette as the only decoration. Brilliant. If only she'd been knitting instead of reading.

But what of knitting? I *can't* get my bootees right (what a sentence), so I have unravelled them and turned my back on them. But the Sirdar chunky jumper is coming along really nicely. I think my Lady Friend is right, and it is basically a kids' jumper in terms of its school story colours (red and grey), but chunky is speedy and it has cables - which I love - so I am pleased.  I did knit quite a bit of it, in between finding knitted crowns on the streets, but I also spent quite a long time reading the new Patrick Gale, A Perfectly Good Man. His writing is very good: warm, evocative of Cornwall, and witty. I'm not competent to knit and read, so occasionally Patrick Gale won.

I'd love to hear any news of the Sheringham Yarn Bombers!

Finally: quick Wednesday WIP. As I've just mentioned, the Sirdar jumper is the WIP. You can see it in the previous post, where I'm knitting it with a lovely sea view!