Just knitting

A while back, I read an account of a Master Knitter who required his apprentices to "knit" for 5 years before he allowed them to purl anything.

Of course from a modern viewpoint that seems extreme.  

On the other hand, 500 years ago, a journeyman knitter would have passed through seaports where he would have seen seamen wearing Jersey knitting ("Ouvre", aka crossed stitch, right over left), knitting from Eastern Europe (crossed stich, left over right) and plaited fabrics where both kinds of crossed stitches are used, and the uncrossed knitting which is more popular today. 

As a craftsman, he would have thought about each of these knitting techniques on hand spun threads and yarns ranging from fine silk, and fine worsteds to the course woolens needed by stockmen working in the winter's cold and seamen braving the North Atlantic and Finnish Seas.

Knitting crossed stitches flat and in the round, require different techniques. (You are knitting a sock, and must change techniques when you get to the heel flap, and toe up knitting is harder to maintain consistent stitch pattern - you really do have to think 3 rows in advance.)

Knitting crossed stitches and uncrossed stitches in yarns of  different twist and grist with the speed required by a commercial enterprise, requires different tools. I would expect a knitting apprentices to make the needed tools for themselves.

Even if the Master was a good teacher that chose smart, nimble fingered, bright eyed apprentices; today, I think that the apprentices would have had to work very hard to master JUST KNITTING in 5 years.

Advantages of crossed stich knitting include greater elasticity - when stressed, crossed stich knit fabric will not stretch as far for the given stress, but it returns to it's original size and shape  better than knit fabric without crossed stitches.  And the fabric is ~ a quarter to a third thicker than fabric knit without crossed stiches from yarns of the same twist and grist at the same gauge. And, finer yarns often have more twist, and thus are more durable.  Crossed stiches allow knitting a warmer fabric from a particular yarn. And, the fabric surface is smoother, allowing the fabric to shed water better than fabric knit with uncrossed stitches from the yarns of the same grist and twist at the same gauge.

On the other hand, fabrics knit with crossed stitch techniques, take more effort, take longer, and are much more difficult to plan than just "uncrossed knit to fit".

I have not proven it yet, but I expect that a 1.5 pound "Jersey" knit from 1,700 ypp 3-ply yarn was as warm as a Yorkshire gansey knit from 5-ply weighing 2.2 pounds.  And, I am coming to expect that "cross stitch fabrics" are more durable than "fisherman's rib" for fabrics in points of abrasion such as sock heels, fingers of gloves, and such. And, think of the advantage of such warm, light, fabrics for a seaman with the clothing he needed for months at sea in a bag 8" in diameter and 24" long.  

Yes, today I think that much of  what we see in Gladys Thompson came after  mechanical spinning technologies (starting circa 1450) that were faster than drop spindles and the various driven spindles, and the "Enclosures" (starting circa 1604) that resulted in cheaper wool yarn. 

In short, I do not yet understand how sailors/fishermen on square rigged ships sailing from Norfolk (or St Helier, Jersey circa 1400 stayed warm.  The (wool technologies ???) that kept them warm are a puzzlement.

This is the most challenging and interesting problem I have come across in years. My knitting corner in the kitchen is a mess - I do not know how my wife stands it. My knitting costume is now overalls under a leather apron and 2" wide heavy leather belt supporting the knitting sheath. The overalls and leather apron form a stable base allowing the belt/knitting to be moved up and down and then be a stable base for my knitting pins.

There are at least half a dozen "swatches" (hats, socks, gloves) in process.  Needles range from 1.3 mm spring steel to 3.25 mm wood. Some of those needles are really long, and some are very short. The yarns range from 2,500 ypp worsted spun, 2-ply handspun to good old (https://www.macauslandswoollenmills.com/) 3-ply woolen.  

The different swatches use different muscles, as one set of muscles gets tired, I switch swatches.

Crossed stitch knit fabrics let woolen yarns show off a whole new bag of tricks. 

 

Force 6

The heat wave has broken, with cold gales (25-35 knots, Force 6) blowing across coastal waters.  Good sailing weather. Small craft advisories and gale warnings were posted today for our areas.
 
Today, we sailed for 8 hours, double reefed, with the lee rail awash,  It was fun; it was often thrilling, but it also required all hands on deck, working hard

Everyone needed warm clothing.  Most wore multiple layers of commercial sailing gear.  I wore one of my handknit ganseys and a pair of Patagonia guide pants.  I had my H and H pro-gear in my sea bag below, but the gansey was lighter and more comfortable. A well knit gansey is the most comfortable garment I know for outdoor sports  or outdoor work in foul weather.

Yes, my hand knit ganseys are weatherproof.  They will keep me warm and comfortable sailing in a gale. This was sailing close hauled back and forth across the slot, not downwind.  We were exposed to the full force of the wind.  And, we got thrown around.  A good gansey is good padding against hard knocks.

Weatherproof gansey fabric

Many typical modern gansey knitters using US 1 or 2.25 mm needles get a gauge of 32 sp4i by 36 rp4i yielding 1152 stitches per 16 square inches  or 72 stitches per square inch. see for example http://www.guernseywool.co.uk/Get_Knitting.html

Using a knitting sheath and 2.38 mm needles with a commercial gansey yarn such as Frangipani, I get 28 sp4i by 46 rp4i  yielding 1288 stitches per 16 square inches, or about 80 stitches per square inch. Thus, using a 5% larger needle, I get an 11% more stitches per square inch. The bottom line is that using a knitting sheath allows the production of denser (more weatherproof) fabrics, even with larger needles.

80 stitches per square inch is about the gauge that Gorden gets using commercial gansey yarn on 2.25 mm needles, so this is indeed the ball park for modern gansey fabrics.

And using a knitting sheath allows using smaller needles. The needles laying across the panels were used to knit that panel. 

Here is a graduated swatch.  The panel below the line of purls was knit with 2.38 mm needles at ~7 spi and ~11 rpi making it a bit tighter and denser fabric than fabric knit at the conventional 72 stitches/ square inch gansey gauge.

The middle panel was knit on 2 mm needles at ~ 96 stitches per square inch.

The upper panel was knit/swaved on 1.75 mm needles to produce 119 stitches per square inch. That is a fabric that is ~ 60% denser than the gauge recommended by  Frangipani, and almost 50 % denser than the fabrics generally produced by Gorden. Denser fabric means that the holes are smaller and the fabric is warmer and more weatherproof.   Some people just cannot seem to understand that their 80 stitches per square inch is NOT tight enough to make a weatherproof gansey, and they have steadfastly refused to try knitting tighter.

I do not care how they knit, However, they should not attribute the performance of their knitting to a good "gansey knit". "Gansey knit" has described a  style of knitting that produces very fine fabrics since Sir Walter  Raleigh sent a present of knit hose to a princess in Poland.  Folks who do not use long needles and knitting sheaths should not speculate from ignorance about the performance of such knitting.  With a knitting sheath and long steel needles, they too can knit just as tight as generations of knitters knitting for fishermen, sailors, and royalty knit. 

Of the 3 panels, only the top panel is really weatherproof, (or rather would be if I oil it.).

The top panel feels thinner between the fingers.  And on land, where there is less wind, or where one can always put on a "wind breaker" the bottom panel is warmer.  However, if you are working in the wind, and your wind breaker is out of reach, then the top panel is more weatherproof and much warmer.

The bottom line is that if you want to use circular needles to knit a weatherproof gansey from commercial gansey yarn, you will likely have to use 1.5 mm needles. To repeat myself, knitting a weatherproof sweater from modern commercial gansey yarn is a lot of work.

This is a two panel swatch knit from commercial 6-strand cabled yarn.  The bottom panel was knit with US 3 / 3.25 mm needles for a gauge of  45 stitches per square inch.  The upper panel was swaved on 2.38 mm pricks to 60 stitches per square inch, and is weatherproof. It is denser than the top panel in the gansey yarn swatch above.  If I  just say that it was knit at 6.5 spi, then everyone and their cousin will say that they can knit such fabric with US3 needles. They do that by knitting more loosely, so every stitch is so long that it leaves a hole though the fabric where cold can enter and heat can exit.  See for example  http://gansey.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-case-of-brandy.html.  However, they cannot match both stitch AND row gauges. The top half of the swatch is still only about 6.5 spi, but it is almost 60 stitchs per square inch or about 30% denser and warmer.  I can tell you for sure that you want to produce fabric that dense on US3 needles, then you will need to work with Aran weight yarns.  Knitting Aran weight yarn to a weatherproof density is ferocious work.

 I showed in lower panel above that it is possible for me to knit 7 spi from 6-strand yarn on US3 needles, but that fabric is only half as dense as the fabric swaved from the same yarn on US 1 needles.  As a rule of thumb, a fabric that is half as dense is half as warm.

Indigo and woad or Isatis tinctoria

Lustrous wool fibers mostly present a hydrophobic surface.   In a few places, there are polar bonds where water droplets can attach or dye molecules can bond.  If those places are bonded to a (blue) dye molecule then those previously hydrophilic areas also become hydrophobic, and there is no place whatsoever for a water droplet to rest, so it will be easily shaken off.  (Yes, I anthropomorphize hydrogen bonds.  ) 

The bottom line is that blue wool sweaters ARE more water repellent.  This can be affected by any of the modern mill treatments that chemically alter the surface of the wool fibers -- most notably the treatments that make wools machine washable, but also aggressive carbonization to remove VM, and processes to stretch and thin the wool fibers.

This tells us that woad likely has such wide distribution in the North Atlantic because it was carried from island to island.  It was carried because it was vital to making serviceable clothing for seamen. Woad (and indigo) made wool more water repellent.  (And woad was a treatment for ulcers. NB the prevalence of ulcers on seamen.) This tells us that the ecru Arans were either made for tourists or were intended to be worn under an oil skin.  Since woad is found on the Aran Islands, then at sometime in the (long) past, it was brought to the islands, and likely used to make blue woolens.  (And, you also find Urtica dioca, there because nettle fiber was preferred for fishing line and nets.)  

This also explains why soap (not detergent) is the better washing aid for woolens that will be worn in the rain or fog.  Soap will tend to make (natural fiber) wool more water repellent.  If your garment care instructions indicate that it is to be "dry cleaned" then it was not intended to be worn in foul weather.  Real fishermen, who need to preserve the fine blue color of their woolens will wash them in stale urine.  (If the object was properly dyed, additional acid will not act as a mordant.  If the object was not properly dyed, then the dye should be set with acid before the fisherman puts it on.) Sadly, real fishermen must rely on real spinners, real dyers, and real knitters, rather than on mills run by bean counters.

A woolen washed in soap, with a drop of baby oil in the rinse water does not need lanolin. Lanolin smells sheepy when it gets wet.  Lanolin attracts moths.  Lanolin gets sticky and attracts/holds dirt. "Wool spun in the grease" and "oiled wool" are myths that stand in the way of warm woolens worn in foul weather.

Anyone that wants to assert that blue sweaters are not warmer than other colors, should be eager to discuss Lewis Acids/Bases and the structure of wool fibers in excruciating detail. 

 http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Acids_and_Bases/Acid/Lewis_Concept_of_Acids_and_Bases  

http://www.jeffjournal.org/papers/Volume6/6.2.7Dean.pdf

Weatherproof

I claim to knit "weatherproof" garments.  If you claim to knit as tight as I do, your fabrics should do anything that my knitting does - without limit.

A pool of water on a sweater is a nice visual aid, but it is not test for weatherproof. Fog droplets in still air move at almost zero speed - rather like a pool of water beading on the sweater.  Real rain drops fall at ~ 20 mph in still air.  A weatherproof sweater can withstand a lot of water hitting it at 20 mph.  Test for it.  I do. My test uses a high pressure nozzle throwing 12 liters/min at the sample.

To a sailor, "weather' means wind.  I test to be sure my gasneys will keep me warm in a cold gale (35 mph). Test for it.  I do.

Wind will accelerate the rain drops or ocean spray to more than 20 mph. Test for it.  I do.

In the 18th century, cod fishermen in the North Atlantic worked from open boats and hand knit sweaters that would keep them warm and dry in a 48F  gale. ("Frostbite" time for bare skin = 30 minutes.)   When the weather got bad, they put on another gansey, and oil skins.  However, their Jerseys and Guernseys were warm to a degree that you cannot imagine. That is what I test for - Can I knit as warm as they did? And, I always seek better. What is your standard?

I wear my ganseys in the rain and in the wind.   And when conditions get bad, I wear them  2 at a time, under a commercial fisherman's foul weather gear, with proper accessories. I admit it, that combination is warmer than what the old timers had.  They were very tough. In the real world, it does get colder than freezing, the wind does blow harder than a gale, and I have fished in places where 20 feet of rain per year is normal.  I figure that my sweaters are just sort of minimum competence for a working fisherman's shirt.  If you want to say that you knit as tight as I do, then prove that your sweaters have  minimum competence for a working fisherman's shirt.

If you want me to prove things, then turn-about is fair play. We test for  minimum competence.