Update - Beatrice Gansey

Following a visit to Stella Ruhe's Dutch Gansey exhibition earlier in the year, I decided that I had to make one.

 I scored this amazing stuff at Fibre East from john Arbon. It's their 'Harvest Hues' blend in Pomegranate.

This card from the exhibition shows that although Ganseys are traditionally in blue, they look great in other colours. I spun the jumper quantity of fibre during Spinzilla 2017 (700g of this fibre, making over 2000 yards, which should easily make the jumper and maybe a pair of wristies to match.) I made fauxlags / punis  from the fibre, making for a fast spin. The resulting yarn is quite woollen. Whether Ganseys should be made from woollen or worsted yarn seems to be arguable, I'd welcome comments.

I chose the Beatrice pattern by Victoria Graham, which happens to be a free one. This is the first cast-on. At the suggestion of a friend, I went with the 'guernsey cast-on' for the second start.

It took two starts. I did swatch, I went up a needle size (from 2.7mm to 3mm) because the swatch was a little small. After a while, the first attempt was obviously too big, and so I ripped and started again with the smaller pattern size. Not a problem, I'm loving the knitting, and m now onto the long stockinette body section. 

The tradition of ganseys encourages customisation. I've gone with the twisted rope motif around the waist. I like it. I'll consider the other symbols on the pattern when I get to them.

If you'd like to 'gansey-a-long', I've started a thread here. It would be good to share progress and thoughts.

Spinzilla Team HSN UK Visit to wool processing mill

From a crafter's perspective, it's fascinating to see the familiar scouring and combing processes happen on an industrial scale. It's also heartening to see a large business working so ethically. They're proud of their environmental credentials, with all waste (dirt, grease, noils) going off to serve useful purposes elsewhere.

Friday's visit to Haworth Scouring Co was a 'spin-off' event from last year's Spinzilla.

The first year that the yardage competition was open worldwide (2014) I spun 'rogue' because there was no UK team. For 2015's event I registered a UK team linked to Hand Spinning News. What happened next blew me away. The team filled up within a couple of days (25 spinners max). There was such a spirit between team members during a gruelling week's spinning (the most active team forum by a long margin) and we ended up coming seventh out of around 70 teams worldwide, all of us meeting the 'monster mile' and a grand total of 146,336 yards or 83.15 miles.

Martin Curtis of Curtis Wools Direct / Haworth Scouring Co sponsored our effort by providing real Shetland top for us to spin,

He very kindly also offered us a tour of his mill. Besides being a fascinating day, it was the first time that many team members had met in person!

We saw fleeces being opened up, shaken out and then being passed through a number of tanks of detergent.

The mill also has a combing plant, turning the snowy-clean fleece into beautiful squishy top for spinning. I gather that most of this goes to the carpet industry; wool carpet being more environmentally-friendly, healthy, comfortable, non-compacting and not necesarily more expensive than synthetic fibres. Some of the wool goes to make garments and the noils (shorter fibres) into bedding.

Longdrawjames and Freyalyn testing the wool by twisting small amounts between their fingers. There was a funny moment when Martin did the same and looked around expectantly. "Usually when I do this, people are impressed", he said "...but you lot being hand spinners, I can see that you're not...."

potamousse's other half took this excellent picture of the team, or most of those that were present, with our Spinzilla team pinnies.

We had the opportunity to buy some real Shetland top and other fibres. I'd gone intending to buy more of the white to spin, dye and weave into a tartan blanket-scarf. However, after seeing how the natural fibres look when woven, I chose a selection of natural colours.

For the genuine 'real Shetland', contact Martin's son Adam of the Real Shetland Company. They're not really geared up to supply smaller amounts for hand spinning, but depending on what you want, Adam may be able to help or to pass you onto a retailer.

UK Team for Spinzilla 2015

I've made this announcement on Ravelry and in Hand Spinning News but I realise that I've not put the news here - how remiss of me!

I'm proud to say that Hand Spinning News is a 'Merino' sponsor for Spinzilla 2015. In a nutshell ("...case more like..." as Basil Fawlty would say) it's a 'spin as much as you can in a week' competition for teams and individuals with loads of prizes, not just for yardage but also photography and random draws too. The wider aims are to raise awareness of spinning and education (providing craft materials for young people).

Running a team is a separate matter from sponsorship. Last year I spun 'rogue' (not part of a team) because there wasn't a UK team and I resolved to put that right this year if no-one else stepped forward. A couple of weeks ago I registered 'Team Hand Spinning News UK'.

If you're interested, please show your interest on the UK Spinners Rav group, though spinner registration doesn't open until Sept 1.

That's all happening Oct 5-11 so it's early days yet, but I've been speaking to Curtis Wool Direct who has very generously offered to supply prepared wool for the team. And with samples here I've not been able to resist looking for a suitable project and spinning samples.... More in the next post.