The Gansey Diaries (ep 1)
Welcome to the first episode in my new blog series: The Gansey Diaries.
Let me be clear right from the start. I will not be teaching you how to knit a gansey in these posts. They will be more of a travelogue of my journey creating a new gansey. From deciding the colour, through testing designs, creating the final gauge swatch, and on to cast on, endless stocking stitch, knitting the pattern, gussets, shoulder straps, neck, and finally, the long, lonely journey over sleeve island and beyond to the finished item.
It will also include various other non-sense, observations from life, the weather (I'm British, so, of course it will), what is making me happy, what is making me sad and what is making me angry (looking at you perimenopause). There will be family life, business life and, while we all are quietly losing-the-will-to-live on the stocking stitch section, posts on other topics just to relieve the tension!
It's the beginning of September, and I'm here with my needles and yarn and of course, my Yorkshire Tea. Wrinkle is keeping a close eye on proceedings.
Wrinkle is also concerned, so it's time for a pause, a cup of tea and a brainstorm. She's noted that I failed to take pictures of the pre-block swatch, and is questioning whether I'm sure I measured it correctly. Helpful, as always.
However, I'm quite a way from the cast on. First up, I've been thinking about what the design should be and creating some swatches.
If you design, how do you start? Do you create a sketch? Do you just grab your needles and launch straight in, casting on some stitches and figuring it out as you go? I tend to go to a spreadsheet or charting software first, to figure out what the motifs might look like together and how they might work in a repeat. For me, it’s clearer and easier than sketching, which is not a skill I excel in!
This week, therefore, I’ve been at my desk, creating charts. My little office (aka corner of the junk room) is at the back of the house and north facing. Normally, it’s The Coldest Place on Earth, but this past summer it really came into its own. I even managed to take my cardigan off. Exciting times!
Mr Wrinkled Thistle isn’t great at interpreting charts, so he waited to see the swatches. I actually enjoy swatching and I create at least one every time I create a new gansey. Weird? Well, I do have a crochet thistle as a side-kick so I'll leave you to make your own mind up about that.
I don’t look at swatching as a chore, something which gets in the way between me and my next project. For a gansey knitted from scratch, without a pre-written pattern, it's absolutely essential. You have to know your gauge before you can figure out what your stitch counts need to be.
More than that, it is also a way to introduce myself to the yarn, to make sure the needles and yarn are a happy combination, and to understand how it will feel to knit miles of stocking stitch and pattern using them. Call me crazy, but I would much rather frog and retry with a small sample, than make it all the way through from the welt, beyond the stocking stitch section and into the pattern before realising it’s really not going to work!
I expect to see at least some difference between unblocked and blocked gauge. There is also very little change in the stitch counts between the stocking stitch and patterned section gauge. It makes me a little suspicious, especially as there are cables involved.
If you don't want to miss the next thrilling instalment of The Gansey Diaries, make sure you sign up to my newsletter. And if you want to comment or ask questions, please use the contact me form on my website, or find me on social media (@thewrinkledthistle on Threads, Facebook and Instagram).
I'm wondering if it just this particular yarn behaving slightly differently? It’s entirely possible, which is another reason I swatch before every project, even if I’ve used the same brand and colour of yarn before. They are not always the same!
I made a couple of samples but the one Mr Wrinkled Thistle liked best was this one, with a diamond motif, and repeating cables and moss stitch panels. I’ve finished the final swatch, measured, blocked and measured again and was surprised to find very little change in the stitch counts between blocked and unblocked.
I’m going to pause right now, to see how I feel about the swatch and whether I’m going to repeat. I’m sure my next mug of tea will help me see things more clearly.
The gansey I'm creating in this blog is for Mr Wrinkled Thistle and even though he already has two, he fancies a different colour. He's an outdoor person and we found a green he likes, camouflage, or something...so that choice was an easy one!
The Wrinkled Thistle
Heritage Ganseys | Modern Knitting
Copyright © 2024-2026 All rights reserved