A Shoal of Ganseys

For our summer outing with Knitters with Attitude, six of us headed off to Sheringham on the Norfolk coast to a knitting exhibition at the Sheringham Mo Museum.  Although knitting was involved, it was basically just a jolly for the girls to get away from their menfolk for the day and cause madness and mayhem around Sheringham and Cromer.  In fact, I'm wondering whether we'll ever be allowed back in the Museum, or the wool shop in Cromer for that matter?

Over seventy "ganseys" (or "guernseys" - fishermen's jumpers) were on show around the museum, decorating the lifeboats and the exhibits.  

The jumpers all showed off different patterns and they were special to the fishermen that wore them, showing family symbols - marriage, how many children, etc, etc - in the intricate patterning.   This wasn't just for decoration, this was for practical reasons too - if anyone had been washed overboard, the victims could be identified by their sweater pattern.  

One thing that really struck us was the unfinished ganseys - these were started for fishermen who had, before the jumper was finished, died.  It was considered bad luck to finish the jumper and give it to someone else - so they were just abandoned.   It was also considered unlucky to have a green jumper - the ganseys were generally knitted in navy, cream, grey, stone, although I'm happy to report a rebellious red was on show too.

The museum is really cool actually - there's plenty to keep people occupied, with individual little "stores" laid out where we all got a bit sentimental for the "olden days" - one store repaired umbrellas and this led to quite a rant on my part that everything is so disposable nowadays that you wouldn't even THINK of repairing your umbrellas, you'd just bin it and buy another.   What has the world come to?!  

It wasn't all doom and gloom though - the names of the lifeboat crew had us in stitches.  I'm very pleased to report that a Long and a couple of Farrows were part of the crew - but I have never heard of a To Ra Ra Bombdeeay as a name before - I rather like it!

This one really captured our imagination - the pattern is called "flags" and was so intricate that we wondered whether it had actually been knitted by hand or machine.  Jury's still out.   But we spent quite a bit of time in front of it, trying to work out the pattern for ourselves.

There is a gallery around the top of the museum and we could then see all the ganseys laid out over the benching and decking of the boats.

On the gallery, there was an educational corner set up - with a couple of computers showing the history of the ganseys, plus a lot of samples of the patterns, so you could work them out for yourself - if you had the patience.   I loved the fact it was pretty hands on and inclusive.

So feeling inspired and not a little daunted by the prospect of making a gansey, we headed off to the shop where knitting books and wool were procured - it will be interesting to see at which point the first gansey (or socks potentially) is revealed to the monthly meeting?   If at all!

So a KwA outing would not be complete without a trip to a wool shop and a yarn squish - and, with that, we headed off to Cromer - ostensibly for lunch at the Rocket House, but not without a trip to the wool shop first.  (And, indeed, after lunch too!)  

As part of the 100 year First World War commemorations, Cromer churchyard had sown thousands of poppies around the gravestones - and it was beautiful to see in the sunshine.

A lovely, educational day out for the group and we really need to plan more, ladies!