Cobles and Ganseys

 Bridlington Sailing Coble Festival is an annual event to celebrate the history of these small boats.

This year was slightly different for me as whilst Ian was out sailing in the bay, I was spinning and talking about British Sheep Breeds alongside Deb from Propergansey who had a selection of old and new ganseys as well as a wealth of knowledge about them.

We spent five nights on the campsite so we could have some time together before things got busy.

I enjoy the walk from the campsite to the town, depending on the time I sometime break it at the model village cafe.

Competitive bunting hanging for the best dressed coble.

all watched over by some of the commercial fishing fleet

The main fishing here is lobster

The cobles are somewhat smaller.

The festval was based around the boat shed which contained displays about the historic boats along

 with examples of lobster pot making, lobster and crabs, seaglass crafts and coastal paintings. 

This lovely small coble is called Covid as it was built during the lockdown in contrast to some of the boats that are more than one hundred years old.

As Ian was out sailing on Gratitude most of the weekend, I was a coble widow haha, however Deb from Propagansey based in Whitby suggested that I join her on her stall with my spinning and knitting.

a small display as it had to fit into my backpack whilst travelling.

I may have spent some money! I now have a fishermans smock to slip on over my jumper when it cools down and a wool gansey (machine knit)

Deb is a walking encyclopaedia about ganseys and several people bought in old ones to show her, amazingly she can often tell who had knitted them from individual patterns and construction.

I must admit that knitting a full size gansey would be a challenge, I've got as far as the shoulder straps on the sample gansey.

It was a good, busy weekend and after five nights we made a move south to our next destination, unaware of quite how hot it was going to get.

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler day five

 The back is now complete, next step will be to knit the front ( I assume)

BTW, Sill coughing :-(

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler day four

I have now reached the point where I'm knitting the back on two needles. Knitting on two needles is actually fairly alien to me as pretty much everything I knit is in the round except for the occasional shawl. Also reading the pattern and remembering what stitch I should do is interesting but I am doing this as a challenge to get myself away from my safe place.

I've just noticed, I'm using a bobbin lace pattern as a bookmark for the knitting pattern :-)

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler day three

 I'm still laid up with the cough which has lingered on from the slight cold I had at Christmas, how can such a slight sniffle give me the cough that takes hold every time I move I don't know. Anyway it is slowly getting better.

So its back to the Gansey, first thing o state is that I prefer fairisle  !! Still, I'm learning as I go.

I've started the underarm gussets, one looks ok, the other a bit weird but nethermind. Next I will be looking at knitting the front and back flat which is going to really test me !!

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler day two

 A bit more about the sampler, It's designed to teach the traditional techniques of knitting a gansey without the commitment to a full size version. I will be knitting every part as if it was a garment for myself but in reality it will only fit a teddy bear.

I'm hoping to learn some new techniques and gain some understanding of the construction of these garments, who knows, I may eventually knit myself one.

progress so far

( I doesn't really sit flat due to the two ribbing sections overlapping and the rib seams )

I'm sure that once finished and blocked it will sit more like it should.

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler

 Hi, I've hand it in mind for a a year or so to try the sampler pattern from this book. I don't knit large items but the idea of knitting a small Gansey to try out the techniques.

As usual I'm using hand spun yarn and I suspect that at some point I will end up confused but  I'm going to give it a go.

To end the day we have  a decent sunset, not bad for the first day of January

Gansey hunting and my weekend knitting

 I had hoped to go to Cromer museum to see if I could spot any ganseys but its now closed for the season so I had to be content with one of the boards of historic photos that can be found around the town.

Photos taken by Olive Edis 1876-1955 more info and links can be found here

I took a bag of oddments with me and by the end of the weekend I had another headband.

Typically, as we packed up to come home, the sun came out for the first time and as much as we would have loved to extend our stay we had to come home for an appointment on Monday.

September tour - the fibre version part 4/4

 The first and last stop was our favourite seaside town of Bridlington and this time we took the opportunity to call into the Bridlington Harbour museum after saying hello to the gansey girl.

The museum has a small display of ganseys as expected on the east coast, not the best for taking photos but I tried.

and a quick plug for Debs at Propagansey, pop in and see her if you are ever up at Whitby.

I can't see myself ever knitting a gansey, at least not a full size one but maybe a sample one? teddy bear size?

TDF day 5 catch up

 Day five was an 'at home' day, household chores and admin needed attention. I even put a few more rows on the scrap shawl.

I also had chance to glance at a book that I picked up at the guild at the weekend. Its instructions to knit a gansey but more importantly it also takes you through each step by knitting a sampler ie a miniature gansey. I may just have to have a go at this :-)

The six bobbins of ryeland are now plyed, another bobbin has also been spun.

and this may be as close as I have ever come to having the same amount of yarn on each bobbin.

Day six is just starting with me packing my backpack ready to head out to a couple of local museums one of which is only open two hours a week so fingers crossed.