Knitting Ganseys [Paperback]

Beth Brown Reinsel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993

Ganseys are sweaters that developed in 19th-century England as hard-wearing garments for hard-working fishermen. Characterized by their dense, dark yarns, rich pattern combinations, and dropped shoulders, these simple square garments provide the modern knitter with a template for a wide variety of classic designs. Detailed, step-by-step line drawings and photographs, sidebars, and formulas help the reader build a foundation of skills. Pattern graphs and instructions for six of the author's own designs are included.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Includes some amazing knitting information not found in many places, such as the Channel Island and knotted cast ons. This is the first place I have ever seen three ways of working a right twist, 2 st cable with a full explanation of the differences of each."  —Knit Together

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Interweave Press (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934026858
• ISBN-13: 978-0934026857
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent explanation of traditional knitting technique, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Knitting Ganseys (Paperback)

These traditional fishermen's sweaters from various parts of the British Isles are beautiful, sturdy and intimidating. I've always admired them, but never thought they were within my reach. Then I bought this book. A few things hit you right away. The first thing is the very realistic view the author takes of the women who traditionally did this type of knitting for pay. Very clear eyed and unsentimental. The second thing that hit me was how clear and easy to understand the photographs are in this book. It is like sitting next to a friend who is showing you how to knit a particular stitch. Usually I think that the lack of color photos hurts a knitting book, but these black and white photographs are exceptionally clear and add tremedously to the quality of the book. The author suggests that you knit a very small sample sweater in order to become familiar with the process, before starting a full scale sweater on your own. It's a great idea...my granddaughter will have a very well dressed teddy bear. The concept becomes surprisingly unintimidating when the first project is so small. Since the author gives us so much information all at once, it is probably a good idea to read through the whole book first and then go back and mark the places you want in order to make your small sample. There are line for line patterns for six sweaters included in the last chapter. They include most of the techniques featured in earlier chapters. There seems to be a natural transition from the small sample to one of these patterns to finally drafting an original of your own. All in all a very satisfying book and definitely worth both the price and the time you need to devote to making the garments shown. I never thought I would have the courage or the skill to produce a real gansey, but this book gives me hope

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A traditional knitting style & fitting lessons, too!, June 2, 1999

By 

S. Pirkle "avid reader" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knitting Ganseys (Paperback)

Work through the sample sweater in this book and you will be able to design your own gansey-style sweater to fit, no matter what size you (or your yarn) may be. Along with the techniques presented in the sample teddy-bear sized sweater, multiple options are presented for design variations, including armhole shaping, ribbing, and two complete alphabets.

The fitting method is based on measurements and gauge, similar to several "percentage" methods. The approach followed in this book is less mathematical than most, more common-sense.

There are six patterns in the back, with detailed instructions. Personally, I would have preferred more pictures, more different examples, without the detailed directions. The techiques presented in the sample sweater do not produce a "traditional" written pattern, and I found that the row by row instructions of these six examples were somewhat confusing.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable reference for designing and knitting ganseys, August 14, 2005

By 

cachkn46 (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knitting Ganseys (Paperback)

I agree with most of the praises other reviewers have bestowed upon this book, but I also understand the criticism in the review entitled "disappointing". I recently knitted a very challenging gansey (not one of the patterns in this book), and, as it was my first gansey ever, I used this book for reference for techniques that were unfamiliar to me. While most of the explanations were clear, a few were a bit obscure. I was surprised to see this, given the author's excellent reputation as a teacher. In these few instances, I was able to find another book with much clearer explanations of the same techniques.

Of the six patterns for full-sized ganseys, three are for children and three for adults. All of the patterns for kids are nothing special and I wouldn't make any of them. The three adult patterns are better. Two of them, the White Gansey and Grace's Cardigan, are very nice, and I may make them, or use them as spring boards for my own designs. The six patterns do use different construction techniques, so that all of them taken together do represent many of the various traditional methods that Beth describes throughout the book.

The section on stitch patterns is quite useful, and I have used this in the past for reference when designing my own textured sweaters (not ganseys).

All in all, this is a very useful book and well worth the money. But this is probably more because it is the only book of its kind. I think there is room here for an even better book on knitting ganseys, should anyone else endeavor to write one!