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 ... ;)

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  . . . .

 

 

 

 

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!