Knitting as adventure

I like adventure.  I was a good rock climber. I was a good skier.   I include solving problems and finding solutions as adventure - finding a working solution is surviving the adventure. Surviving a real adventure begins with knowing what the likely challenges are, and an open minded consideration of possible solutions. A successful adventure involves developing necessary skills. 

I find knitting to be an adventure. It is surprisingly physical. A good knitter's hands are as strong as a good rock climber's hands. And, finishing a large project in a reasonable time requires substantial endurance. 

I believe in "knit to fit"; meaning that the knitting pattern must be adapted to the size and shape of the person that will use the object - this requires a fair amount of skill and math.  The difference between knitting a pattern and knitting to fit is an adventure.  "Knitting to fit" transforms knitting from a pastime, into an adventure.

Knitting to fit also includes knitting an object that fits into the user's lifestyle. This may mean knitting objects well suited to display on the "Red Carpet", or knitting objects suited to sailing around Cape Horn, or being worn while pruning an orchard during an ice storm.  I have used H/H sailing gear, and at $1,500 a pop, it is not a warm, comfortable, or durable as a well knit wool gansey. However, I assure you that knitting a gansey that is better than H/H gear is an adventure.  I have worn the best Patagonia ice climbing gear while pruning an orchard in freezing rain, and I settled on my gardening gansey as being warmer, lighter, and more comfortable for the task. However, knitting that gansey was an adventure - from seeing the yarn in Nova Scotia, to finding the mill on Prince Edward Island, to making the knitting sheath and needles; then learning how to use them - and learning how different gansey knit objects can be from ordinary hand knit or frame knit or commercial machine knit. Remember, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent a pair of "gansey knit" stockings to a Princess of Poland, and Poland was one of the great powers of Europe at the time.  "Gansey knit" is different and better!

Such objects are completely outside of our modern experience. 

I am finding that exploring "sock fabrics" is an extension of the knitting adventure.  More and more, I find that I have to hand spin the yarns that I want. I find that bins of fiber that I have had for years can be coaxed into yarns that I did not dream of a few years ago.  And, rather ordinary yarns can be coaxed into fabrics that I did not dream of just a few years ago.

For an inkling of what can be, we have to go to books like  Archaeological Textile Review no 62 online at 

 http://atnfriends.com/download/ATR_62_complete_for_homepage.pdf.  

Why do modern books on how to make textiles not tell us how to make such objects?

Actually, I am grateful that nobody does tell us how to make those lovely textile objects the old timers turned out by the bale.  Learning how to make such objects is an adventure. No! You are not going to get there with "Weldon's Practical Knitter". Weldon was a fraud. If you want to knit the patterns in Gladys Thompson at the gauges indicated, you will have remember that the originals were knitted using knitting sheaths, which are barely mentioned in the text.  Likewise, mentions of knitting sheaths by Mary Thomas, Mary Wright, and June Hemmons Hiatt should have included how to use a knitting sheath and discussion of appropriate knitting needles. But NO! They want using a knitting sheath and its needles be a bold step into the unknown, an extreme adventure.

Bobbles with flat tipped needles/knitting pins

 I had not knit bobbles since I moved entirely to flat tipped knitting needles.

Some lace stitches are difficult with flat tipped needles, so the question of , "Can bobbles be knit with flat tipped needles?",  had been bothering me. 

This morning, I got out the gansey kit; and, bobbles are not a problem to knit with flat tipped needles. I did not even have to use a crochet hook or cable needle or say magical incantations in crude/rude language.

Love and Hate of the Classics

Over the years, I have had a love and hate relationship with Paton's Classic Wool (PCW).


A large swatch of Paton's Classic Wool knit on 2.4 mm needles was the  was the first clue that I was on the right track.  However, ultimately I generally decided that  the fabric that I was producing was not worth the effort, resulting in a large number of WIP sitting around.  Finer needles seemed like more effort for not that much better fabric.

Exploration of blunt needles over the last few months has allowed exploration of knitting PCW on finer needles.

Knit on 2 mm needles, I get 9 spi and 12.5 rpi for 112.5 stitches per square inch, and on 1.6 mm needles I get 9.5 spi and 12.5 rpi for 118.75 stitches per square inch.

While the numbers are similar, the fabrics are different. In fact, the numbers would seem not that far off of the 7 spi by 10 rpi (70 stitches per square inch),  that I get with 2.38 mm needles, and yet the 3 fabrics are very different.

Knit on the 1.6 mm  needles, the fabric has a smoother surface that allows water to just run off in ways that just does not happen with the fabrics knit on larger needles. It is also surprisingly abrasion resistant.

Knit on the 2 mm, the fabric is thicker and has more surface texture, but is still very weatherproof.  The extra thickness/ softness gives better drape, and the surface can be brushed into a very nice nap.  Over all, the fabric knit on 2 mm needles is softer and wickedly warm.  It is a nice Guernsey fabric, that is much, much warmer than what most folk knit as "gansey" fabric.

These fabrics are firm, so they need to be knit to fit, rather than knit from a generic pattern.  However, these fabrics have more stretch and elastisity than woven fabrics.  They can form a warm second skin that allows free and easy movement.  And, they have tremendous warmth for the weight.

In many ways, these are fabrics that I have been trying to knit since 1998, but I did not have the tools and skills to knit.  Oh, there were hints, such as the fact that "mak'n pins", were often only 1.5 mm in the old days.  When I first read that, I should have jumped forward to 1.5 mm needles.  And, when I read about how long it took a professional knitter to make a set of needles.  That should have told me that they are not tapered to the tip, but rather blunt.

And, you are not going to get to PCW knit at 70 stitches per square inch with circular needles. I have knit small swatches of such fabrics on circs, but that convinced me that sweaters from such fabrics were not plausible. I tried over and over. Swatches of these fabrics can be knit with a knitting belt, but those swatches told me that that it imposed significant wear on my knitting belt. so I moved on to wooden knitting sheaths.  Maple, rosewood, and even cherry, endure the stress very well. I got here using 12" blunt needles with my latest generation of knitting sheaths.

My point is not that PCW is the best yarn, only that it is a very good yarn, and a great value. And it sets new standards for hand spun - it tells us that rather generic woolen yarns can be knit into great objects. It opens the door for finer fabrics knit from finer woolen yarns.  And, it suggests that generic worsted spun yarns can produce great fabrics. And, if that is the case, why is there such a variance in price?

The evolution of my knitting sheaths, 

with newer sheaths to the left.

The needles on the left are old.

The horizontal knitting sheaths were made in the last 3 months, and the vertical sheaths are older.   The gansey needles are 10 years old. (And, for large objects, longer needles are faster!)  Sizes of needles in photo range from US1 to US0000, and all can be accommodated with various needle adapters in the photo.  Special needle adapters are made for swaving.  Number and color of bands on the adapters indicate size, and placement of the band(s) indicates gansey or swaving. These needle adapters work better with the swaving needles than the knitting sheaths that the swaving needles were originally made to fit.  (However, currently the swaving needle adapters work better with my Durham style knitting sheaths. The Durham sheaths put the swaving needles into a better ergonomic zone.)

Note that the needle adapters allow use of one sheath with many different sets of needles.  The knitting sheaths work much better when they are made to fit one style of work belt, and are then used with  the belt they were made to fit.  Between the old and new knitting sheaths are (on the block of maple)  examples of  the threaded inserts currently used to attach the needle adapters to the knitting sheaths.

In the context of thousands of hours of planned knitting, taking a couple of hours to make a knitting sheath that might increase productive by a couple of percent is perfectly rational, regardless of the discount rate.   When those same knitting sheaths move better fabrics from the realm of plausible dreams into practical reality, it is silly, not to be making better and better knitting sheaths.

I keep the old knitting sheaths around to later, check, verify, and validate the data related to each transition.  As Feynman said, "It is important not to  fool yourself."

The Transition(s)

It took me 3 or 4 years to transition from hand held needles (e.g., circular needles) to knitting sheaths and knitting belts.

I would knit something with circs, and see if I could knit it with a knitting sheath.  Here the greatest challange for the knitting sheaths (with DPN) was Moebius knitting.  Ultimately it was clear that any Moebius knitting could be done with a knitting sheath, and some Moebius objects that are not practical to knit with circular needles and can be knit expeditiously with a knitting sheath.

Then, I would knit objects with knitting sheath technology and see if I could knit them with hand held needles. First, it was clear that knitting with a knitting sheath was easier on my hands and wrists, allowing knitting to be done faster, easier and with less stress on the hands and wrists. Then,  I was able to knit fabrics that were much tighter and more weatherproof than anything I could knit with circular needles. Third, Fair Isle and stranded techniques were much faster and easier. The difference in productivity and level of effort was huge.  Over all, it took about 4 years to convince myself that anything that could be knit on circular needles could be knit faster and easier with a knitting sheath. That is it took me 4 years of serious effort to set aside the teaching of the experts that I had so carefully learned. However, I was still knitting things that I could, in theory, knit with circular needles.  I was simply using a knitting sheath because it is faster and easier.

I knew I was on the correct track when I took a large swatch knit from Patons Classic Wool into the knitting instructor at a very high-end yarn shop, and she looked at it for half a minute, with her mouth open, turning it over and over and feeling it, but saying nothing for a long time.  I thought she was going to berate me for bringing cheap wool into her high-end shop, At long last, she asked, "How did you every knit anything so wonderful?  Can you show me how you knit?  "

About halfway through my transition from circular needles to  knitting sheaths, I started looking for better yarns, and spinning, Yes, better yarns lead to better knitting, but most importantly, a better knowledge of yarn leads to better knitting.  Today one of my favorite sock yarns is a 1,650 ypp, 6-strand cable that I make up from commercial 5,600 ypp, 2-ply warp yarns.  I would never have found that yarn if I had not learned to spin.  I would not be able to ply it up quickly, as a high quality knitting yarn if I had not learned good spinning skills. 

Spinning also taught me about the glories of fine yarns. 

Since moving firmly to knitting sheaths, I have started knitting things that I cannot imagine knitting on circular needles. Knitting sheaths allow me to finely knit large objects in a reasonable rate.  When I first came across Jamieson's Spindrift, I was as still using circular needles, but I did not like the fabric as produced at 7.5 spi on US3 needles.  With a knitting sheath, today I knit Spindrift on 1.5 mm needles, and I like the fabric. Now, I knit Spindrift at ~13 spi and ~16 rpi for about 200 stitches per square inch. On a 4" by 4" swatch, that is 3,200 stitches.  Most importantly, Spindrift taught me  what I could do with 2-ply, 2,000 ypp, woolen spun yarns.  Knit on fine needles, such yarns produce wonderful fabrics.

I may lack imagination, but I cannot dream of knitting a sweater with 200 stitches per square inch on circular needles. However, it is very feasible with a knitting sheath.   I also knit my 1,650 ypp, 6-strand cable yarns on 1.5 mm needles at ~ 10 spi by 17 rpi, and it makes a nice fabric that I love for a multitude of uses. It is a great sock yarn,and works when ever I need a wool jersey.  I knit commercial 5-ply gansey yarn on US00 / 1.6 mm needles to produce a fine dense fabric - that is weatherproof.  You may not like it (or need it),  but, I find that it far out performs the products by Marmot (https://marmot.com/products/men), which I use as standard.

Today, knitting sheaths allow me to knit such objects on a practical basis.  I love the fabrics.  If you can knit such fabrics with circular needles on a practical basis, then more power to you.  I do not find it practical, and I love fine fabrics,so I keep using knitting sheaths.  On the other hand, I do not stop looking for better ways to knit  -- as in my transition to blunter needles over the last couple of years. Even last night I was grinding blunter points on 6" steel sock needles that I made 10 years ago for use with Dutch style knitting sticks.  Yes, pointy needles can be faster than blunt needles when hand held, but with a knitting stick, blunter needles are much more productive.  And, many of my old knitting sticks have been upgraded to take 1.5 mm needles.  And, when knitting sock fabrics at 170 stitches per square inch - I need the speed.

My finding of knitting sheaths as a more productive way to knit finer fabrics is not a "belief'", it is the summary of hundreds of tests relating to knitting productivity during my transition period, and subsequent feasibility testing as I have moved to finer yarns over the last few years. Moreover, it is consistent with the use of knitting sheaths by many generations of professional knitters.  And, it is consistent with the physics and ergonomics of knitting.   Any reasonable assertion that circular needles are as good for knitting should be supported by substantial tests of knitting productivity by both methods,  address the use of knitting sheaths by professional knitters, and the physics/ergonomics of knitting.

I do not see such testing and analysis. The people that I have taught to use knitting sheaths knit faster - without exception. And, some of these were awe inspiring, fast knitters from childhood when they met me. Some of them were teaching me to knit faster, a few hours after they got their knitting sheaths. When somebody says that a knitting sheath does not allow  her to knit faster, I know she has not bothered to learn the technique.

Back to leverage

Ultimately, knitting needles are levers for moving loops of yarn. For hand held needles such as circular needles or DPN, the thumb is usually the fulcrum, and total leverage is ~1:3.  With a knitting sheath or knitting stick or knitting pouch as the fulcrum, the leverage is between 1:20 and 1:100.  With the gansey needles/knitting sheath that I am using for sock knitting these days, my leverage is about 1:50.

That means, a knitter with with circular needles must apply about 17 times as much force as I do to move the yarn loops. In fact, it is possible to knit as tight as needed with circular needles.  I wore through the plating on 2 sets of US1  Addi Turbos doing just that.  As an old rock climber, I have reasonably strong hands.  There was a time when I spent 2 hours per day at Indian Rock hanging from my fingers, just to strengthen them.

A very easy training climb on Mt. Tam.

There was a time when I climbed the 2,500 feet of Mt. Tam.

every day.  When they closed Mt. Tam because of the trail-side shootings, 

I climbed it every night.

Some knitters, say that they have very strong hands and can knit as I do using circular needles.  Their hands would have to be 17 times as strong as my hands are.  That is like claiming that if Aaron can lift a hundred pounds, they can lift 1700 pounds, over and over.  They may be that strong, but human hands cannot endure such stress indefinably. Using gansey needles and a knitting sheath, my hands and wrists are subject to only 5% (e.g., 1/17 th)  of the stress of their hands and wrists are subjected to as they knit.  It is a level of stress that my hands can endure indefinably.  I let my steel needles take the stress, and save my hands.

I think that is a smarter way to knit.

Swaving using curved needles with a knitting sheath

provides uses compound leverage, to yield

very high effective leverage.

The crew of one the last wooden cargo 

ships to go around the Horn.  Notice 

the commercially knit Guernseys.

Dear John,

The modern hand knitting community is dominated by folks who knit for fun. For many years, the fun knitters have rudely pushing aside the folks that want to knit functional objects. (We will get back to functional!)

Fun knitters do not check their work, so many myths have grown up, and now echo around and around the community, with some leaders saying they are experts and the myths are the truth.
Then, intermediate level knitters repeat what they have been told without checking its truth.

Here are my favorite myths:

1. Myth -hand knitting is warm/ loose is good because air traps heat
1. no! STILL air traps heat -air can easily move through most hand knit objects
2. to trap and keep air still to hold heat, the fibers need to be ~40 microns apart - twice the thickness of a Merino staple.  do the physics - http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
3. thus, for max warmth, you want the yarn fibers and the yarns to be about 2x the thickness of a merino fiber apart.
4. knitting with circular needles does not pack yarns or fibers that tightly together.
2. Myth- gansey yarn is always warm
1. not if there are gaps between the yarns where air can flow
2. gansey knitting can pack the yarns together to produce a warmer fabric.
3. swaving can pack the yarns together to produce a warmer fabric
4. woolen yarns are often easier to pack together to produce a very warm fabric if you have the leverage - circular needles are no
3. Myth - gansey yarns are more durable
1. most modern commercial gansey yarns are spun from fine fibers that are not particularly durable. woolen spun rug wool may be more durable
4. Myth- nylon makes yarn more durable
1. nylon is slippery and lets wool fibers fall out of the yarn while the long nylon stays
2. yarn makers add nylon because it is cheap
3. super wash is also less durable then untreated wool

Truths to replace the myths

1. Gansey knitting and swaving pack yarns together making a fabric that is much warmer than can be knit with hand held needles.
2. Gansey knitting and swaving can produce fabrics that are much more durable than can be produced from the same yarn with hand held needles.
3. Gansey knitting and swaving can produce fabrics that are much smoother to the skin that the fabrics produced with hand held needles.

Truths for a knitter to live by:

1. Finer is better - finer yarns can be knit tighter with less effort - ultimatly warmth is not about thickness, it is about not having holes in the fabric where air can pass through.  For example go look at the best new technologies at Patagonia, Marmot, and North Face.  Thin, light, and no holes.
2. Finer is better -  yarns with finer plies result in more flexible fabric, with better drape when knit tight.
3. Finer is better - finer needles leave smaller holes in the fabric for the fibers to fill.
4. Finer is better - finer fabrics have more warmth for the weight.

Path to the truth

1. long needles.  12" is good, 14" is better
2. knitting belt. e.g., http://www.journeyman-leather.co.uk/knittingbelt8.html
3. making your own knitting sheath is very much like a Jedi Knight making his own light saber. It is its own path and the process is the end.  I have made thousands of knitting sheaths, but the very best one was made just last month.

Functional.  I knit light weight, warm, and often weatherproof objects.  The first took me hundreds of hours to knit.  I could have worked at minimum wage, saved my money and bought objects of similar weight and warmth faster. If we price my time at my full billing rate, then my knit objects are very expensive and not functional for the price.  However, I have to be somewhere, and I can be knitting. We are going to watch the movie anyway and I can be knitting.  We are going to drive some where, so I let someone else drive and I knit.  I can still talk and navigate, while I knit.  Thus, I can value my knitting time at a very low rate and my objects are very cost effective. They are functional in the extreme.

Mostly I use Grizzly tools.  Needle blanks are made on a carbide grinder and are finished on a Sorby-Pro. Knitting sheath blanks are cut on a band saw.  I use threaded inserts to hold the needle adapters to the body of the knitting sheath. The needle adapters are made on a wood lathe.  The blog is full of pix of various designs.  

However, I have made excellent knitting sheaths with just a hand saw or even just a pocket knife, making the hole by heating steel rod or even a nail in a candle and burning the hole.

No one source says very much about gansey knitting and knitting sheaths.  To the best of my knowledge, this blog is the single largest source on gansey knitting and knitting sheaths.

I am likely to go back into making knitting sheaths fairly soon.

AL

Size 12 or 13 needles

The first pattern in Gladys Thompson is A Channel Islands' Guernsey.

The pattern was provided to GT by de Cararte and le Patourel of Guernsey. They owned a very old commercial firm that produced hand knit objects for export for sale to sailors at ports from Gibraltar to Reykjavik and St Petersburg.  De Cararte and le Patourel were only one of several firms in the Channel Islands that exported knitwear for seamen and fishermen.  Shiploads of fine knitwear was produced and shipped from the Channel Islands. Thus, we can be sure that there was a lot of knit wear worn by seamen, all knit to a similar level of fineness.

Some say, they do not find it in the museums.

Where did it all go?  Good husbands/ sons/ brothers, discarded it, and took a bath as soon as they got to shore.  Bad  husbands/ sons/ brothers wore them home, so their wife/mother/sister had to cut it off them, and burn it while the seaman took a bath with lye soap. Real seaman's knit wear was not likely to end up in a museum.

In the Guernsey pattern, 334 stitches are used for a chest size of 38 inches.  That means there were ~8.8 spi or 35 stitches per 4" or 10 cm.  The Guernseys were knit very tight. Since it  was a competitive industry, we can assume that the other firms knitting for seamen knit similarly tightly.  Why?  Because it is a warm, weatherproof fabric.  I know, I have knit a lot of it for myself and my friends. I knit it because it is our favorite fabric for foul weather wear.

A doodle in the round on "A Channel Islands' Guernsey" patterns.

The stockinette has a gauge of just over 9 spi and the

pattern variations are at just under 9 spi.

The needles are size 12. 

The yarn is a commercial 5-ply worsted spun

with a grist of ~950 ypp

However, there is a group that claims such fine tight knitting was never common or useful.  That is because they do not know how to knit such fabrics.  They have not knit such fabrics.  And, they have not tested such fabrics in serious foul weather.

However, knitting such objects is easy - if you know how.  First you use long needles called "gansey" needles. If you have gotten this far, you know I have been working with gansey needles for 10 years. With gansey needles you need a fulcrum so you can apply leverage for fast and powerful knitting.  You can use a knitting belt as your fulcrum, but a real knitting sheath is a more controlled fulcrum and  allows much faster knitting.

On page 7,  GT tells us to use Size 12 or 13 needles for knitting the Guernsey. Because of the group that claims 8 spi is as tight as necessary for gansey yarn, we assume the "Size 12 or 13" refers to the  UK sizes in the range of 2.25 - 2.75 mm. Such needles do produce the 7 to 8 spi the the group likes to think is as tight as such yarn can be knit.

However, The Channel Islands are not the UK. The 12 or 13 does not refer to UK needle sizes. Once one drops the assumption that the 12 or 13 is UK sizing, then one does what one always does, and one swatches until one gets to 8.8 spi.  I have knit a lot of  5-ply gansey yarn at 8.8 spi, so I know that it happens on 1.5 mm gansey needles with a knitting sheath.   I have a great number of such needles, because I like the fabric that results from knitting this yarn at this gauge. If I was knitting objects for sale to seamen, 8.8 spi is the gauge I would choose, because seamen would appreciate the warmth of the fabric.  Remember, this is the gauge that I knit for the guys that have saved my life.

If you flip thorough the various standards for wire sizing, it turns out the the needles I use are in fact Size 13 in AWG.  So, yes I get 8.8 spi from gansey yarn using Size 13 needles, just not UK13!

The Gansey World

Sir Walter Raleigh used the term "gansey knit" in a letter to a Polish Princess to refer to finely knit hose. Gladys Thompson used it to refer to an object knit from ~2,500 ypp yarn, knit at a gauge of 12 spi and 20 rpi, which she also refers to as "Jersey".  Thus, we know the term is old, and the modern knitting of 80 stitches per square inch barely scratches the surface of what traditional knitters could knit.

These two references have been rattling around in my brain since I first started experimenting with "gansey needles" (and knitting sheaths).  However, then, I was never able to knit such fabric at a reasonable pace.  Now, that I have been using blunt gansey needles, such fabrics and objects have become more practical.  

For example, when I first came across Jamiesons  2-ply Shetland Spindrift yarns (2,200 ypp), I was rather disdainful of the fabrics produced according to the gauge on the yarn band.  However, when knit on 1.5 mm needles, the fabric is lovely.  Gauge runs ~ 160 stitches per square inch.  Not "weatherproof" mind you, but a warm, elastic fabric that is perfect for wearing in cool damp conditions. .Spindrift knit on 1.5 mm needles is warmer than worsted weight yarn (e.g.,  "4") knit on 5 mm or  US 8 needles. The Paton's 4-ply Beehive was just a bit denser than the Spindrift with a slightly lower grist, and when knit on similar needles, produces a denser,  warmer, and more durable fabric at 12 spi and 20 rpi,  

These days I have taken to knitting  yarns with  grists of ~1,650 ypp/ 3.3 Nm  (e.g. 3-ply or 6-ply sock yarns) on needles in the 1.75 mm range. This is finer than previous posts, and results in a gauge of 12 spi by 15 rpi.   (As I said, I am falling down the Rabbit Hole and in the last few weeks, I have ground the sharp points off of 6 or 8 sets of fine, pointy "gansey  needles"!)   I use these fabrics for socks, mittens, and where ever a warm, light weight fabric is required. The more plies, the better the drape and elasticity of the fabric.

Then, 4-ply yarns in the 1,260 ypp range are knit on 2.0 mm needles.  A month ago, I was knitting 1650 ypp yarns on 2 mm needles.

5-ply (gansey) yarns in the 1,000 ypp (sport weight) are still knit on 2.38 mm needles.  It is a nice fabric.  If I need a more weatherproof fabric, I reduce the ply twist to give more fill and knit on smaller needles.  If I need a much warmer fabric, I use a lower grist yarn.

All of the above fabrics are firm, warm fabrics with good drape and excellent durability. For all of the above fabrics, I use long steel DPN with a knitting sheath.  as described above, none of the fabrics are particularly weatherproof. Production rates on the finer needles are much better using blunt needles and working in the round.  Purl stitches are easier on pointed needles. Pointed needles are required for picking up stitches.  A fine crochet hook makes repair of mistakes easier. A cable needle is required for cable stitches.

So the question is,"Do I want an object that will be warm and stay looking beautiful for years and years, or do I want an object that will never be very warm, and will quickly fall apart?" 

I work in yards per pound (ypp), because the math is easy. The square of the wpi (packed to refusal) is the grist in ypp, always.  I know that when 10 hanks of 560 yards weigh a pound, I have spun 10s or 5,600 ypp, and it will measure 75 wpi.   Then, if I make 5-ply, it will have a grist of 1,000 ypp and measure 32 wpi. I know that if I spin a single that measures 105 wpi, and I make 6-ply, then the resulting sock yarn will measure 40 wpi.  I know that if I spin 40s that measure 150 wpi, and I ply it into a 6-ply yarn, it will have a grist of 3,360 ypp and measure 58 wpi.

Thus, I must update my gansey yarn chart.
(Note the differences with http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/weight.html , and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_weight.  Also note the failure of http://www.knitting-naturally.com/yarn-comparison-chart.html, http://www.spinderellas.com/Yarn%20Weights%20and%20Measures.pdf , and  http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/lace/knittingyarns.htm , to use a wraps per inch technique that provides consistent and useful results.)  The knitting community's to failure to "pack to refusal" when measuring wpi results in nonsense.


wpi       grist (ypp)   spin count           notes

 22         484                                        Aran Yarn (traditionally was 10-ply of 10 count singles)
 24                             1
 26         676
 28         840                                        Worsted Yarn (traditionally was 6-ply of 10 count singles)
 30         900
 32         1,000                                     Gansey  Yarn ( 5-ply of 10 count singles) 
 33         1,100                                     DK weight yarns
 34         1,120           2                        
 38         1,443                                    Common grist for commercial sock yarns e.g., Wooly West
 40         1,650           3                      Various 3-ply  and 6-strand yarns knit on 1.75 mm gansey needles.
 42         1,800                                   Single cut woolen singles         
 44         1935                                    Fingering Yarn
 48         2,303                                   Jumper Weight/ Spindrift weight 2-ply  (1.5 mm needles)
 50         2,520                                   4-ply Beehive yarn ( 20 count singles) (1.65 mm needles)
 53         2,800          5 
 58         3,360                                    Traditional 6-ply sock yarn from 40 count singles             
 60         3,600                                    2-cut woolen singles @ 9 tpi                     
 64         4,100                                     Modern lace weight
 70         4,800                                     Woolen single at same tpi as 10s warp
 75         5,600          10s                    Singles for warp/ 9-10 tpi ; woolen singles for weft @ 12 tpi
 82         6,700          13                      Traditional 3-ply Shetland lace plied up from 40 count singles
 85         7,200                                     High-end Shetland lace weight yarn/ 2/14.5 Nm
 105       11,200        20s                    Worsted singles that I use for my sock yarn @ 14 tpi
 120       14,400                                   8- cut woolen singles / 18 tpi
 130       16,800        30s                     Worsted singles @ 17 tpi
 136       18,000                                   10-cut woolen singles / 20 tpi
 142       20,200                                  2-ply from 80s  e.g.,  ~2/40 Nm
 150       22,400       40s                     Singles used for best sock yarn/ 17 -22 tpi /~ 45 Nm /Shirting
 182       33,600       60s                     Traditional commercial  "fines" / 22- 24 tpi
 210       44,800       80s                     Traditional best commercial "fines"  /24 - 27 tpi  / 90 Nm

So, when I measure the wpi of  2/40 Nm yarn I get  ~135 wpi which converts to ~ 18,000 ypp, which is about what I get when I simply convert from metric units.  Wraps per inch works when one packs to refusal. For somebody to say a 2/40 Nm yarn measures 42 wpi is silly.  If any of  the sites referenced above had a competent spinner in residence, they would know this.  

Note that 2/40 Nm can be easily hand spun  from 70 count wool at a commercial rate by a competent hand spinner.

Towards a taxonomy of knitting

A knitting needle is a lever for moving loops of yarn.

See http://www.ohio.edu/people/williar4/html/haped/nasa/simpmach/lever.htm

Levers used in knitting are Class 1, Class 3 and various springs.  If we look at the elements of the various knitting techniques we see:

Yarn tension

1. Right hand
2. Left hand
3. Both hands
4. Pin on chest or around neck

Tools 

1. Cable needles
2.  Cable needles/ 2 sets
3. Single point needles
4. "Sock needles" (Short double pointed needles, which may more or less flexible but the flex is used for ergonomic comfort rather than for individual stitch formation. Sock needles may be bent or curved but the curve is for ergonomic comfort rather than individual stitch formation.
5. Stiff, short double pointed straight needles, with knitting sheath to match
6. Flexible double pointed straight needles, with knitting sheath to match and flexed into each stitch.
7. Long double pointed straight needles with knitting pouch (may be stiff or flexible)
8. Short curved stiff DPN used with knitting sheath to match, and rotated into each stitch.
9. Hooked needles 

Fulcrum / mechanical advantage

1. Thumb of hand holding working needle. / ~1:3
2. Ball or base of thumb of hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
3. Second finger hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
4. Index finger hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
5. Knitting sheath./ 1;20 => 1:50
6. Center  or outside edge of  right palm./ 1;20 => 1:50
7. None, spring action of needle.
8. None, spring action of fabric.
9. Shoulder joint / e.g., no mechanical advantage.

Effort (source of force to move loop)

1. Rotation of right wrist
2. Fingers in right hand (any or all)
3. Forearm
4. Bicep
5. Deltoid
6. Pectorals
7. Tricep
8. Rhomboideus

Now, a Ravelry forum might offer 200 different knitting styles that I would say all use left hand yarn tension, the right thumb as a fulcrum with wrist rotation as effort yielding a mechanical advantage of 1:3.   200 styles of knitting that offer the same mechanical advantage.  One or another may offer ergonomic advantages or minor advantages in speed, but they all have the same mechanical advantage and the same amount of hand movement, so they are going to produce very similar results. 

However, if one looks around there are knitting techniques that involve flexing a needle held in a knitting sheath with the palm of the hand, into the working stitch, looping the yarn, and allowing the spring action of the flexed needle to finish the stitch.  This is such a different concept of knitting, that in contrast the 200 versions of continental knitting are all one technique.  And using one set of cable needles or 2 sets cable needles or DPN or SPN or changing the mount of the stitches or purling backwards does not change the essential analysis of how the lever is used to move the loops of yarn.

There are knitting techniques that involve rotating needles held in knitting sheaths into the stitch, looping the yarn over the needle and then allowing the spring of the fabric to pop the needle out of the fabric and finish the stitch. This generates a very powerful compound leverage, and the effort for the entire stitch is one quick push of the needle, with the knitting sheath controlling direction. this is an old and very fast way to knit, but it is not something that is likely to be included in a Ravelry thread on ways to knit.  It works very well.  The fact that I do it everyday makes it science, and since it is the technique used by the Terrible Knitters of Dent makes it is also history.  It is the right way to knit fine gloves and socks from very fine yarns.  Would you like a demo?

And, then there are the long DPN used with a knitting pouch.  What can I say, but that it was a breath of fresh air.  

If you want to tell me there are a large number of different ways to knit  that I do not understand or cannot perform, then you need to tell me about knitting techniques that use physics and tools not listed above.  When I learned to knit, I was almost instantly dissatisfied, and I rapidly went through all the minor variations.  That is, I spent ~6 years trying all the variations of the standard modern knitting methods.  At than point, it became very clear that I was looking for something radically better.

There followed months of experimentation with gansey needles and years of  learning how to control them with knitting sheaths.  This blossomed into an entire spectrum of very powerful knitting techniques that were very different from hand held needles and quite different from each  other.

Then, came swaving, where curved needles are held in a knitting sheath and rotated into the stitch, and the stretch of the fabric acts as a spring to finish the stitch.  This is different from all other knitting.

So, yes I know  the common knitting styles and understand the variants of the common knitting styles.  

Cakes of sock yarn

Mostly, spinning in May was about 10,000 yards of 5,600 worsted singles and then plying up couple of hanks of  5-ply, and making up 5 hanks of  6-strand cabled "sock yarn" @ ~ 1,600 ypp  from 2-ply commercial warp yarn.

The  handspun singles were on little bobbins, each holding just over 100 yards.  Thus, 2 hanks of  gansey yarn frees up a whole boot box of  little yarn storage bobbins -- leaving almost a boot box of little spinning bobbins, each with about 100 yards of single on it. Making gansey yarn is about bringing order to chaos.

For the sock yarn, I go from a neat cone to a sweater box full of yarn cakes.  Then, the trick is to turn the yarn cakes into sweater.

Kit for Sheringham gansey: 2,600 yd of 6-strand cable at 1,600 ypp, 5 x 8" and 5 x 14" stainless steel DPN in size UK 15 with crochet hook. I will use a wide Durham style knitting sheath with a 1.65 mm needle adapter. Note that this sizing is a bit different from what is in the modern charts.  These needles and sheath have become my default knitting tools for this yarn.   At 10 spi, it will be a soft, warm, durable, elastic sweater, but NOT weatherproof. (This yarn is magical. It sucks the light right out of a room. Thus,I expect it is very good to wear while sleeping.)  The cable is a little bulkier than 3-ply. For ordinary 3-ply/ 1,600 ypp,  I drop down to  UK 16.  For straight 4-ply, I would stay stay with the UK 15 needles.  There has been enough swatching and sampling to drive my wife crazy.

This will be a soft fabric. Could I knit it without a knitting sheath?  Sure, it would just take me longer and the tension would not be as even.  The needles are fairly blunt, so a leather knitting belt would also work, allowing similar fast knitting and even tension.  

Again, these are all commercial needles and I have used fine emery to 'break" the polish just behind the tip for faster and easier knitting.

The History Mash

I started "mashing" history when I was looking for clues as to how seaman and fishermen on square rigged ships stayed warm.  Academic history had missed the importance of knitting sheaths and knitting belts. Knitting sheaths and knitting belts allow the knitting of warmer garments. Knitting sheaths and knitting belts were important tools in the day to day life of Europe and GB as furs became less common, and wool became the primary material for warm clothing.  Knitting sheaths and knitting belts allow knitting warmer fabrics than can be knit with only hand held needles.  This is a truth that can be easily proven.

I came to hand spinning in 2009 because I wanted better yarn for my knitting.  That means I wanted useful quantities of  better yarn in a reasonable time frame.

However, hand spinning was in the doldrums.  Everyone was spinning slow.  Sure, I know people that in 2008 hand spun enough yarn for 12 sweaters.   Still, everyone accepted the concept that hand spinning was inherently very slow. And, they were spinning fat 2-ply, which requires minimum twist. There were discussions about which was faster, a (drop) spindle or a wheel and  "slower by the hour and faster by the week" had currency.  Most of my ideas about better yarn include more twist.

As I tried out spinning wheels to buy, they all seemed like they had governors on them to keep them from going too fast.  So, I made a point of buying a wheel that would be easy to modify. It was something that I could modify into a 'hot rod".  However, there was no manual on how to turn a spinning wheel in to a hot rod, and the comments were, " Don't be silly, it can't be done!!"  I used that wheel to learn to spin. After a couple of years, I could spin, and I wanted more speed.  DRS gave me more speed, but I wanted more.

There were stories about CPW being fast. Will Taylor let me spin on his.  I had looked at a number of CPWs, and Will's was far and away in the best condition.  If any CPW was fast, it would be Will's.  My Ashford hot rod was already much faster.   So much for the myth of the CPW, and the people who believe in such myths lost credibility.

I made a series of trips up to Jackson to meet Alden Amos and Stephenie Gaustad, and spun on their wheels.  I ended up buying a pair of  high speed fliers from Alden.  The decision was based on a good bit of historical research into the traditions of spinning.

I was not doing research for an academic paper, so I was not bound by any academic standards in any way.  The sole standard for success or failure in my historical research was Better Spinning as I defined it.  If I become a better spinner the research was a success.  There was a ton of fine academic research out there, but it did not describe a Yellow Brick Road to spinning fine and fast. For example,  The academic researchers do not come out of their academic research on old textiles as great hand spinners.  They research history, not spinning.   I had to go off road. I was researching spinning, not history. I had to think outside of the academic history box. I had to think things that nobody else was thinking.  Many spinners like academic history.  Going "off road" infuriated spinners as a group.  It still infuriates spinners as a group.

Of course my mash of  historical research was only part of the process. The mash developed a set of options, each of which had to be tested. Options that did not test as well were dropped.  What you saw here were options that worked.  Modern textile historians are not good  hand spinners.  In contrast, some of the Victorian historians that my critics disparage were very, very good spinners. (Much, much better hand spinners than the folks who disparage them!)  If I am looking for lessons in spinning, the history written by a very good spinner is likely to be more useful.  My criteria is always, "Does it teach me something me something useful about the practical process of spinning? --  not will it be accepted by the modern academic community.  Remember that the paradigm of  "slower by the hour and faster by the week" came out of the academic community. Those researchers did not do their homework to understand how fast a full time professional spinner could work.

The truth from my mash of history is that it is very possible to spin 500 yards of  worsted 5,600 ypp yarn (10s) per hour on a wheel.  A talented professional might do much better.  Nobody can do that on a spindle.  The wheel/ spindle speed debate was nonsense based on a lack historical information.  If one uses a commercial wheel of the style used by the best commercial spinners circa 1500, the wheel is always faster.  That in 2009, there was still a discussion  as to whether a drop spindle could be faster than a wheel points to the absolute failure of academic historical research to resolve hand spinning questions.  The superiority of a wheel is even more apparent with hosiery and shirting yarns (22,400 ypp).  On these issues, I will not take the word of any historical researcher that has not spun such yarns in commercial quantities on both a wheel and a spindle.  This is not something one can understand unless one has actually tied leases in a a hank of  fresh shirting singles, dyed them, warped, and woven the result.  Actually doing it lends perspective.  

I know spinners that spend more time spinning than I do.  However, I produce more yarn than they do.  And by spinning faster, I have more time to knit, weave, and do other things. Also, at some grists, spinning faster is easier. Just spending more time spinning is not a path to spinning faster and finer. (Assuming you have put in the 4,000 hours needed to learn to spin.)    If one in going to learn to spin finer and faster, one must learn on an ongoing basis from those who have spun finer and faster.  However, they are dead.  If we want to spin finer and fast we have to take lessons from history.

The lessons from modern academic research did not lead to finer and faster spinning (as of 2009).  However, my mash of history did get me to spinning finer and faster.  By my standard, it was an outstanding success.  If you want to claim that academic research is better, then show me that you are a finer and faster spinner, and that you become such a spinner as a result of  historic research conforming to academic standards, and not by using my mash of history results.  I find that the folks that assert the virtues of academic work in spinning tend to recite from rote, rather than explaining logically from critical thinking.  The  comments critical of this blog often sound like the honking of  a flock of geese.  I can recognize the individuals, but they are all saying that I should not doubt the conventional wisdom of the group.   Some are the same individuals that said I should not doubt the conventional wisdom of the knitting group, and I should not use a knitting sheath.  Sorry, but without a knitting sheath it takes me much longer to knit a gansey.  The knitting sheath saves me time, and lets me knit objects that cannot be knit without a knitting sheath.  The group is wrong about knitting sheaths.

Now,  I have blazed a trail to finer and faster spinning.  It is a path that few others will  follow.  Most will  continue spinning thick yarn, slowly.  That is their way. It is not a bad thing.  Still, I expect there are one or two who seek to spin finer and faster.

Today, my Traddy runs many times faster than it did new out of the box. That is the primary result of my history mash. That is a testable result.  It means that this afternoon, I can spin better.  I care about that.

Brear's Fig 5 modernized

Here are pix of my current working clew and knitting holder:

On the left is the knitting sheath with WIP  boot sock for me (2x2 ribbing in cuff is just over 6" long) from last night showing the knitting holder that I would use if the knitting got heavy.  (Swaving is more sensitive to the weight of the knit object than gansey knitting.)

On the right is a clew to hold my yarn off the ground for knitting out and about. You can see how a whittler that did not knit might whittle out the objects in Brear's Fig 5 to replace these apparently make shift approaches.  Really the only key element is the fishing swivel between the yellow twine and the blue stitch holder.

Does one need a clew and knitting holder?  I find knitting with a sheath and straight needles to be much more difficult while walking than knitting with hand held needles while walking. Thus, I had substantially given up trying to knit while walking.  Swaving (with needle rotating in the knitting sheath) changes all that. Swaving while walking is easier than knitting with hand held needles while walking.  This forces a reconsideration of the whole knitting while out and about paradigm.  I can knit in more places, and I knit faster, so I have to carry more yarn.

The other issue is that swaving needles tend to corrode faster than gansey needles. I think this is because swaving is easier on my hands than gansey knitting, and therefore I use less hand lotion.  It may be that my hand lotion helps protect the gansey needles.

Torque, Tension, and swaving

Long needles require longer knitting sheaths (mostly) to withstand the torque of the long lever arm provided by the length of the needle.  Knitting sheaths for swaving do not need to withstand that torque.  I may have been absolutely wrong about the short spindle form knitting sheaths in Brears. They may be to scale, but were used for swaving.

These are two Yorkshire knitting sheaths that I made along time ago. (Long before I worked out swaveing.)  They  mostly differ by the direction of the spiral design carved on them.  First, I made the one on the left, and it never worked (with the straight needles that I was using at the time). The one on the right worked acceptably when tucked into thin apron strings, but was never good enough to keep me from moving on to other designs.   However, for swaving, their performance is excellent and  substantially indistinguishable.  (Both always had brass inserts.)  Now, I have to go back and reconsider a lot of styles and designs that I had previously discarded.  The only thing wrong with some of those designs for swaving is the hole for the needle is too deep.    Relatively short swaving needles do not have to be inserted as deep into the knitting sheath because they do not have to withstand the torque. For swaving, needle holes less than 0.5" deep work well, while I had to make holes for long needles more than a inch deep to keep the long needles from popping out of the knitting sheath and into the furniture.

Two different spindle form knitting sheaths for the same size and length of needle, but since different knitting knitting techniques are used the knitting sheaths are different.  The long sheath is of the Dutch style and works very well with 6" straight needles (sock needles) and the short one is for 6" curved needles that rotate in the knitting sheath.

This raises the obvious question, "Can one swave with a leather/horse hair knitting pouch". Yes, but it is not as fast or easy as with a properly designed/ lubricated knitting sheath.  It is kinda like handheld knitting with wooden needles; there are many reasons to knit with wooden needles, but more speed is not one of those reasons.

It turns out that my trouble with doing decreases while swaving was in part because I was knitting very tightly.  And, swaving, allows knitting much tighter than in any other form of knitting that I know.

However, it is also possible to knit very loosely while swaving, giving swaving a larger range of fabric types for a given needle size than I am accustomed.  It is like  hand held continental where one can knit very loose fabrics with small needles.

However, with continental, one can just switch from tight knitting to loose knitting, or from loose to tight.  However with swaving it seems to take about 4 rows.  Anyway the bottom line is that one can knit loose fabrics while swaving, and that such looser knitting makes decrease stitches much easier.  However, knitting loosely while swaving does mean knitting slower because the fabric has less spring to it to pop the needle out of the stitch.

Swaving is much faster than I could ever knit with long needles (gansey needles), and I do not seem to be near a peak speed.  It is nice to have objects that seem to just sort of fall off the needles.  I have to be more careful to always count rows or check the length frequently.  In the old days, an evening of TV was a 4" sock cuff.  I could cast on and knit all evening without checking the length. The next morning, in the light I could finish the cuff, and turn the heel.  In the evening, I could knit most of the foot, and finish the sock in the morning's light. Thus, most of my work socks have about 5" cuffs.  I was not paying attention, so the current pair on the needles has 6.5" cuffs.  I will save them for winter wear.  It will be OK.

I had been using brass inserts in the needle adapter for swaving needles/pricks, as this reduced the friction, and allowed the needle to rotate more easily.  However, installing a brass insert was extra effort. Now, I am moving to simply making the needle adapters for swaving out of rosewood, black walnut, or similar.  With a bit of bee's wax , these woods seem to make a perfectly good bearings, allowing free rotation of the needle.  How they wear will be another question. I have not decided if the extra bother of working with these woods is more or less than the bother of a brass insert.  However, everyone seems to think the rosewood turnings look nice.

Peer Review

Somebody said that any work I do on the revival of old knitting techniques needs to be peer reviewed.like an academic work, a science publication, or an engineering design.

Naw!  Its knitting.  If it is better, then it is better. If it is not better, then it is just more knitting.  The proof is in the knitting.

I went to some of the local textile judges, and asked if I could enter my fabrics in competitions that they judge (e.g., county fairs, fiber festivals .  Their response was that it was likely within the rules as written, but that the rules did NOT contemplate "gansey knitting" (or swaving), and such work belonged in a different class from hand knitting.  Entered in a "knitting" competition, my objects would be "ringers". I like and respect these judges and they know my work, so I was not about to go against their wishes.

Now, they know such objects are being produced, and they have had a couple of years to rewrite the rules. I can start entering the competitions.  And, now there are other knitters around using gansey knitting tools (long needles & knitting sheaths) so there should be some competition.

We have some very good knitters in the local spinning guild, and every "show and tell" produces a stream of "nice" and "very nice" objects.  If I do not get a reaction of  at least,"OMG, how did you do that?!" then, I know I need to go back to the drawing board and design something better.  If I get, "That is not possible! Nobody can knit like that!", then I know I am on the right track.

Turf wars

I see some English knitters telling me that "Ganseys" are their turf, and that I should not try to say anything new or different than what the current generation of English Gansey knitters are doing and saying.  This has the effect of limiting useful discussion. This is very like another issue I track.

After a long and rancorous review, Wind was published to some nasty comments in the climate science community.   I see this as turf wars between folks in ivory towers that do not need turf.  It would be silly, except that there are interesting things in the paper.  Are they useful things?  Maybe, but the turf wars are limiting useful discussion. I basically see the guys in climate science telling the authors of  Where do winds come from? that the authors are outsiders, and should stay off the turf of climate science.

The inside joke here is that the climate scientists are some of the smartest guys in the world. Similarly, those English knitters are some of the best knitters in the world, and they are behaving like pointy headed academics in ivory towers.  Knitters are supposed to be smarter than that.  : )

I would take these English knitters more seriously if most of the orders for gansey tools that I am working on right now were not for folks in Yorkshire.

I really do not care what other people knit!  I do not try to tell others what to knit.

I do say what fabrics I like to knit.

I do say why I like those fabrics.

I do say how I knit those fabrics.

And I do tell people how they can knit similar fabrics and objects. I try to make it reasonable and logical.  Easy is another matter.  A good Guernsey is a hundred hours of hard work.  However, sometimes it is worth it. I do tell people that it is not always worth it.  I do tell people that "sometimes, less is more".  I think a knit object should fit the need. The need may be for status, or it may be for warmth.

My wife says, "It is a barbarity, clarity is a rarity!"  And turf wars are the enemy of clarity.They end up as a hen party with everyone picking at each other's language, rather than addressing issues of substance. Turf wars over ganeys keep people from enjoying the full spectrum of knitting.

Gansey knitting

A competent knitter can knit ANY style sweater, on gansey needles. Garments for sailors and fishermen can be knit quickly, and so tight as to be weatherproof. (Gansey needles can also be used to produce the finest lace. One millimeter gansey needles are much easier to work with than 1 mm circs. I have used 0.5 mm gansey needles, but I do not have any 0.5 mm circs to compare them too.)

The essential characteristic of a sailor’s or fisherman’s sweater is the warmth it has from being tightly knit. More loosely knit sweaters are not as warm. I find that a difference in stitch gauge of only 7% can result in a sweater having catastrophically less warmth. Sailors and fishermen wearing sweaters that are not as warm tend to get hypothermic and perish. If several of the sailors on a ship get hypothermic and perish, then the ship will be lost and all on board will perish. Thus, loosely knit sweaters were inherent not suitable for wear at sea on sailing vessels. (No problem for modern vessels with engines and heaters.)

Up to Victorian times, gansey needles and a knitting sheath were how all seaman’s sweaters, mittens, hoods, watch caps, socks, & comforters were produced. Gansey needles with a knitting sheath were used from the Arab world to Greece to Spain to Brittany, Normandy, Channel Islands, England, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders, and through out the Hansa. The style and decorative stitches did not matter as much as the inherent warmth resulting form the leverage of the gansey needles packing the yarns together. Tightly packed yarn prevented air from moving through the fabric and carrying the heat away from the body. Air will flow freely and carry heat through any gap in the fabric larger than ~40 microns. (twice the thickness of a single fiber of merino)

Such goods can also be knit on circular needles. However, knitting such a fabric on circular needles will, take much longer and will stress the wrists resulting in Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Perhaps not on the first tight fisherman’s sweater that one knits, but such knitting will take a toll on one’s wrists. The replica sweater that Mary Wright (Cornish Guernseys & Knit-frocks) first knit circa 1976 resulted in wrist surgery. In 2005, there was gansey sweater knit along on circular needles. Five of the 6 finishers required wrist surgery within a year. Therefore, with circular needles the tendency is to knit more loosely. Knitting 10% looser, takes much of the stress off the wrists, but produces a much less warm fabric.

In contrast, in 2008, I finished a Filey Guernsey with 750 cable crosses in 9 days, with no wrist problems. When I teach, I pour a bottle of water on a “gansey”, talk for a while, pickup the sweater and pour the water into a sink or bucket. The table or floor where I poured the water on the sweater is still dry. Those sweaters are weatherproof. I have half a dozen sweaters that I can use for this demo - and most have been worn a great deal. They are very comfortable for sailing. The styles and yarns used vary significantly, but they are all weatherproof.

If you want to hand knit sweaters for a boat load, or ship full of seamen, you will have use gansey needles or you will either knit too loosely and all will be lost, or you will ruin your wrists before all the sweaters are knit, and those seamen without a warm sweater will die.

“Gansey” is not the style of the garment or the decorative stitches. “Gansy” is a technique of fabric production, that can be used for all types of fabrics that can be hand knit. Gansey knitting has different physics than knitting with hand-held needles. Some kinds of objects such as gloves that can be gansey knit are better swaved. And, under some conditions, some kinds of objects can be more conveniently knit with hand held needles. However, the last time I thought I had a good example of such an object, some careful swatching showed that gansey knitting was better.

Snow is coming!

Every cell phone needs a gansey!

Also fits my little camera.