Yachting Jersey: Finished! [Part V/V]

I've participated in knit-alongs, and enjoy knitting from current Vogue Knitting... but no knitting thrill has been as great as the feeling of possibly having been the first person in a hundred years to knit from an antique pattern.  The uncertainty of not knowing if the final product will resemble the printed image as one slowly works, line-by-line, through the mysterious pattern is tremendously suspenseful.  The process feels a bit like receiving a secret code from a friend from long ago, and deciphering that code helps bridge the gap of time.

The big reveal took five posts on my blog, which may seem like overkill... but bear in mind that it took me nearly two years of research and steady work.  Though most gansey sweaters were knit with dark blue, I chose natural (more in the aran tradition).  As it turns out, as you may have gathered from Part IV/V, though a gansey, this particular pattern was clearly meant to be a less-utilitarian type... and so I hope will not be too bothersome for the purists out there.

I was lucky that, at this time in history, snug-fitting sweaters are in fashion.  This works well with the tradition of the gansey, which is meant to have negative-ease so as not to interfere with one's work.  I am also fortunate to have a handsome model living right in my household who is willing to work for food (lots of it!).  Here's hoping it's not the only time he'll ever wear it! 

See it on Ravelry here:  Yachting Jersey

Yachting Jersey: How to Put a Spin on a Fisherman's Sweater [Part IV/V]

Fishermen Saluting Mrs. Buxton, from the Norfolk Museum collection of Fishermen Ganseys

As previously mentioned, the "Yachting Jersey" is somewhat pompously described as "specially intended for yachting and boating, may yet be worn for football and other athletic sports."  The jersey is, in point of fact, of a type known as a Guernsey (or Gansey) sweater.  Guernsey sweaters were anything but jaunty collegiate sweaters.  Though named for the Isle of Guernsey (a British protectorate), they were worn for hundreds of years (from as early as the 15th century) by North Sea fisherman of many nationalities for utilitarian warmth. By the 1900s, the Gansey had been adopted as the official uniform of the Royal British Navy.

On a website where one can still order a traditional Gansey sweater, Flamborough Marine describes verbatim how the Yachting Jersey is constructed *

A Gansey is a distinctive woollen sweater, originally designed to provide protection for fishermen from wind and water but which is ideal for all outdoor activity. Using a tightly spun 5-ply worsted wool (popularly known as "Seamen's Iron") the intricately patterned Gansey is knitted in one piece on five steel needles. The patterning to back and front and, in some cases, the upper part of the sleeve provides an extra layer of protection, while the combination of seamless construction, fine wool and tight knitting produced a garment that is both wind and waterproof. Indeed, every part of the garment is designed with practicality in mind. The wool is knitted tightly so as to "turn water"; the lack of seams ensures greater strength and impermeability; the underarm gusset allows freedom of movement; the lower sleeves where most wear is sustained, are left plain so the worn part can be unravelled and re-knitted, while the patterning across the chest provides extra insulation.1

Weldon's Woollen Guernsey Frock

     The most basic elements of the basic Guernsey are a tight fit and not-quite-full-length, tightly fitting sleeves, a band of garter stitch bottom wet, a ribbed sleeve top, and a vertical garter stitch panel on the upper chest.  Contrast stitching was applied only to the upper sleeve and upper torso (Again, the utilitarian reasoning behind restricting the more complicated stitching to the areas least likely to be damaged, so elbows and edges could be unraveled and repaired). These elements can all be seen in Weldon's pattern for the Woollen Guernsey Frock (above).  It is said that the farther north one traveled from Guernsey, the more elaborate the designs.   And here, on a blog featuring images from an archive of Shetland Patterns for Gansey sweaters one finds images quite similar to our Yachting Jersey (and with a good imagination, I believe one can almost see the hint of a block pattern on the chest, though not on the body):

Wayside Flower: Shetland Pattern Gansey Sweaters, "From the Archives - Island Life North of the border, Och aya."

By the 19th century, the Gansey sweater would have been widely recognized on sight (much like blue-jeans in America), and many British Isles knitter had likely committed the Gansey sweater to memory. By the time the Yachting Jersey was printed in the refined notepaper of Weldon's (in other words, NOT given to a young knitter by her mother/grandmother as her youthful chore), the Gansey was, for many,  part of the knitting vernacular.  Thus, I suspect that the suggestion that one should utilize a fancy pattern (The Block Pattern) on the arms and body, might have seemed rather frivolous... Not unlike the way I feel when someone tells me that young people are spending $250.00 on blue jeans because they are produced by "7" brand rather than "Levi's." 

*  ...although they do say their handknit sweaters are made "...in one piece in the traditional way, using 5-ply WORSTED wool." ... not fingering as described in our pattern.  The use of worsted wool is corroborated by the Norfolk Museum Gansey Sweater Collection, where they write, "Of all the Norfolk fishing ports, Sheringham is particularly noted for its ganseys. They are extremely fine, being knitted in size 16 or even size 17 needles with three-ply worsted wool. This gives a stitch count of 13 stitches and 19 rows per inch"

1 Flamborough Marine, Ltd. (Accessed 2/24/2015)

Yachting Jersey: Franklin Habit [Part III/V]

Having struggled through the materials section of my pattern, I began to need additional help with some of the more archaic instructions.  Enter Stage Left: (superstar knitter) Franklin Habit.  Franklin Habit is well-known for his blog, Panopticon, as well as his many popular patterns [Princess Franklin Plaid Collar, Pineapple Purse, and recently in Vogue... his tour-de-force Fitted Waistcoat.].  Franklin, an expert on working with antique and vintage patterns, tours/leads workshops on the subject ... including the one at MIT which I attended in 2014 (Organized by the Common Cod Fiber Guild).  Here are the pearls of wisdom I gathered that day:

1)  Write down all materials.  Ensure materials match and make sense.  For example... The Yachting Jersey calls for "... the best unshrinkable Alloa or 5-ply fingering."  First, Alloa yarn was woolen and decidedly NOT unshrinkable*.  Next, a 5-ply yarn is Sport Weight yarn according to most yarn weight standards, not a Fingering yarn.  Hmmm.  Write it down and move on. 

Elements which do not make sense must be looked at in the context of all the other elements of the pattern.  If, for example, the pattern has contradictions about yarn weight (as above), you may use the needle size as a clue as to which is correct.  Or sizing... if the yarn weight , say fingering,  will result in a 12" wide sweater designed for a man, it may be wise to bet on a conflicting element of the pattern (say, needle size) which would tend to produce something larger.  Write down ALL the MATERIALS, and then look for what makes the most sense... interpreting historic patterns is an art, not a science!

2)  When all else fails, search the pattern for something which indicates finished object measurements.  When these data bits appear, hold on to them for dear life. If you are aiming for a 13" cast on length, and your cast on with size 1 needles and fingering weight yarn totals 6"...ADAPT.   Knitters did not always have hundreds of needles from which to choose and made do with the needles in their houses.  They adapted their materials to make what they needed.    The modern knitter, when faced with nonsensical patterns must be willing to do the same.  Written instructions were meant as a guide, not law.

3)  "Plain knitting" in historic terminology means GARTER stitch (not stockinette, and not purl).   It is sometimes abbreviated P1 for "plain knit."  I'll admit, this had me pulling out my hair as I read and reread the Yachting Jersey pattern.  Thank you, Franklin.

In summary, when knitting from an antique or vintage pattern, FLEXIBILITY IS AS IMPORTANT AS PRECISION.

Thank you, Franklin, for helping me move past my considerable OCD barriers...and for a fun morning workshop!


 * Viyella, a blend of merino and cotton, was available in yarn form, but it is unclear to me whether it was being made prior to 1920.