SCOTTISH FLEET MISCELLANY

The fisher gansey represents the deepest roots of my knitting career: it is what I saw being worn and made about me when I was a child, and it is what I started to make as a child. Over the years I have made it something of a personal mission to not just keep the art of gansey knitting alive, but to develop and carry it forward. That is why I have always included beautiful and interesting ganseys in my collections whenever possible, and have made a point of sometimes moving outside the realm of the gansey as working garment. The designs that follow are from several of my past publications, and I have assembled them here for those who have the relevant books. I realise only too well that the art of the gansey is not for everybody. It requires commitment and these designs are not for the novice. As well as needing skill and motivation, you also need to crank up the tension. Every gansey I have ever made has left me with a red ring around my forefinger. It fades though, unlike a Scottish Fleet gansey, which if treated correctly will last for ever and a day.
AS

Please note that the relevant book is required in order to knit the following designs.

From In The Hebrides

SEAFORTH

The Mackenzies of Seaforth acquired the Isle of Lewis from the Macleods by a combination of cunning and brute force in 1610. As the Lords of Seaforth they held it down the generations until diminished circumstances forced them to sell up to Sir James Matheson in 1848. Their views of the peasantry were typical of their class, and so their two-and-half centuries as landlords is not exactly regarded as a golden age by Lewis historians. I have named this lengthened gansey not after them, but after the dramatic, steep-sided fjord, Loch Seaforth, from which they took their aristocratic name.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

SHEILAVIG

The letters I receive about this shaped waistcoat usually say two things. Firstly, finished it ... at last! Secondly, having finished it I don’t know whether to wear it or hang it on the wall. Just wear it. The fluted peplum and fine herringbone panels were designed to drape with elegance and grace on the female figure.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

From Fisherman’s Sweaters

ERISKAY

The Hebridean island of Eriskay can be regarded as the very centre of the gansey art, for it was from here that the most elaborate examples originated. I extended the tradition with a gansey for knitters who want a challenge. I devised some unusual patterns for it, including one based on a crab’s legs, and my versions of the anchor, the tree, the diamond and the star, which are personal symbols. Making it available over three sizes is definitely not a part of the Eriskay tradition, but the necessary mathematics was a labour of love, and it was worth it. I made the gansey in the picture in my size and it remains a favourite garment, worn with pride and still in immaculate condition ten years on.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

FIFE

When a fisherman’s wife (or daughter or sister) made a complex gansey, she usually made it for a particular individual, with its pattern panels devised to give particular measurements. They were therefore one-offs. You could not change the size without substantially changing the gansey. So I was not falling into lazy habits when I designed this garment in a single size: I was just following in a long and venerable tradition.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

KINSALE

I adapted the simple shape of the heavy cotton fisherman’s smock for use as my canvas, and then designed a graphic array of knit and purl combinations to fill it. It is made in separate pieces and not in the round. As with Norfolk, it was not originally made in Scottish Fleet, but can be made in Fleet with no amendments necessary to either pattern or tension.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

NORFOLK

I based this delicate sweater on a traditional pattern from East Anglia. It was not originally made in Scottish Fleet, but in can indeed be made in Fleet, straight from the book, with no amendments necessary to either pattern or tension.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

SCARBOROUGH

Ganseys are ideal garments for active children. They allow freedom of movement, wear like iron and can be passed on when outgrown. This example shows how simplicity can be used to great effect in gansey knitting.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

STORNOWAY

Another labour of love: a homage to my home town and to every vessel that ever put to sea bearing an SY registration on its bow. This is a handsome gansey containing all the authentic construction features of the Scottish tradition.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

From Pacific Coast Highway

BODEGA BAY

An ornate, heavy sweater with high texture, like barnacles on a rock. The patterns I designed for it came about by blending pure geometry with sea images such as waves, ropes and nets.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

SANDDOLLAR - ADULT VERSION

This is Jade’s design, completed during her knitting apprenticeship. Her brief was to design a garment that could be different in appearance from a gansey, but which must have all the standard gansey features, including underarm gussets. She still has a sand dollar that she picked up from a beach as a child, and she designed patterns loosely based upon it. The result is very feminine, but all the fisher gansey features are there.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

From Stillwater

FLYING GEESE GANSEY

The techniques are resolutely Scottish while the inspiration comes from a pastoral scene I once saw in the USA of land, river, geese by the waterside and corn in the fields. These elements are all portrayed here, together with basket stitch as a harvest symbol.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

FLYING GEESE CARDIGAN

I changed the silhouette and style while keeping the symbolism from the gansey. Panels of geese and corn cables decorate the yoke, which is joined at the shoulders with cabled straps.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

FLYING GEESE BERET

If you find the prospect of a gansey daunting, then a beret like this is an ideal project on which to practise the required skills, and uses very little yarn.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.

From Tudor Roses

MARGARET TUDOR

Attempt this only if you have the skill and patience to match that of a Tudor tailor or gownmaker. I designed the garment shape and construction to rival their creations and I designed the emblematic thistle and the rose to honour Margaret Tudor. Born sister to Henry VIII; married off at 14 to James IV of Scotland, and mother of James V of Scotland, Margaret led a turbulent life in turbulent times. She is little known and deserves to be better remembered, for it is her bloodline that was passed down the centuries, and not that of her brother. A complex and interesting garment for an equally complex and interesting woman.
Available in any colour of Scottish Fleet.