Hello gansey lovers! Are you going to join us for a marvellous delve into the history and construction of the much loved fisherman's sweater, making your own unique garment along the way?
Here's the plan.
We will meet by zoom, regularly at the beginning but then with more time in between for lots of lovely knitting. Let's face it, with 2.75mm needles and a kilo-ish of yarn this is going to be a long term project! This knit-along will be spread out over nine months, finishing in spring 2026. I have to be realistic with time and juggling family life and running the business, nine months sounds achievable rather than daunting.
This is not a class, we will be able to support each other and guide you through the patterns and techniques rather than teach you.
We will be suggesting patterns from Beth Brown-Reinsel, you can buy her brilliant book Knitting Ganseys here, or Newhaven is available as a single pattern on Ravelry here and Eriskay will be available as a single pattern by the time we start the knit-along in June. Beth (who lives in the US) has very kindly agreed to come along to one of our zooms to cheer us on and chat to us about her designs and share some gansey knowledge.
We will be using Baa Ram Ewe's Skipper yarn - when you purchase yarn for a gansey with this yarn we will send you a code for our zooms which will take place at the times below. This knit-along will be for customers purchasing wool from Northern Yarn to make a gansey - you don't have to stick to the suggested yarn, but it is advised to get the best tension and overall fabric. The yarn has been produced in a particular way - especially for making ganseys - you can read more about the history over on our blog here.
Dates for first few zooms, we will see how we start off then set some targets!
- 26th June 6:30pm - 7:30pm
- 10th July 6:30pm - 7:30pm
- 24th July 6:30pm
- 4th September 6:30pm
- 25th September 6:30pm
We will be using a shared notes app, to be confirmed.
Exciting - I hope you'll be joining us!
Kate