As part of my “Stories” series, I wanted to tell you more about the stitches in my collection. I made it my mission when founding the Charl, to preserve the stitches and stories found in the original Norfolk Gansey jumpers before they were lost in time.
The wonderful thing about knitwear is that you are create a fabric as well as a piece of clothing, which has always been a huge attraction for me. Knitwear can be such a tactile material, almost becoming a work of art, but crucially never losing its functionality.
In the next few newsletters, I’ll be sharing a bit more about the stories behind my collection with you; from the journey of my wool, the stitches and construction of my jumpers to the characters behind their namesakes. I hope you find them interesting and would love to know which one catches your imagination the most…
In this first story, I’d like to tell you more about the stitches.
Gansey jumpers were knitted all along the North Sea coastline from Scotland down to Cornwall, but some ports really stood out from the rest with their iconic Gansey patterns and Sheringham in Norfolk was one of them. The Sheringham Ganseys are renowned for the level of detail in their stitches which typically run in vertical columns along the top half of the jumpers. Each family had their own patterns – rather like a coat of arms which, contrary to popular belief were not invented as a form of identification for drowned fishermen, but actually as a source of family pride, like a Scottish tartan.
The stitches knitted into the Norfolk Ganseys range from “wedding bands” and “hearts” from the family, “rungs and furrows” from farming, weather conditions like “hailstones” and “bolts of lightning” to more nautical stitches like “coils o’ rope” (cables), “herrings”, “fishing nets” and “flags”.
Basketry and Fishermen
The Norfolk fishing communities were virtually self-sufficient, they made their own baskets, underwear, boats, nets, crab pots and of course Gansey jumpers. Abraham Cooper (pictured here) was probably on his fish-round from door to door when Olive Edis (photographer) asked him to sit for this study. The fishermen used wicker baskets to store and sell their catch; the more open weave baskets were used when the fish were caught as they would let the water drain through and the square baskets (pictured above) were used to sell the fish back on dry land. The beautiful thing about wicker baskets is that they can only ever be woven by hand. The tension and technique of the weaver can be seen in the construction – in the same way as a knitted Gansey jumper, making each basket or Gansey unique to the maker.
Meet Catherine Beaumont, a basket weaver from West Sussex who still uses the traditional English technique of tying the willow “underfoot”, rather than the more popular Continental method of splitting the central slath sticks to create the basket base which is gradually taking precedence because it is easier to make. Similarly to my knitwear, she believes in the importance of keeping these traditional British crafts alive for future generations to appreciate.
I met Catherine at The Country Brocante Fair in Hampshire earlier this year and immediately we got talking about the similarities between basketry and knitting. There is something extremely satisfying about her baskets, their proportions and ultimately their story, which is her story and the story of the people who taught her along the way:
“I did a two-day workshop in 1996 and came away with a handful of willow and a desire to do more weaving… My favourite weave quickly became the 3-rod wale. I liked it because it creates a dense vessel like feel and look to the basket.
The “Waled Ken” is kind of my signature basket. And the “Waled Honeypot.”
I started making these 27 years ago now.
The wide base of the Waled Ken creates a very stable basket in the woodland environment we lived and worked in. We lived in a caravan in the woods and then yurts. Basketmaking fitted perfectly into that lifestyle. I had tried ceramics the same year I leaned basketmaking. The forms of my early baskets were inspired by my inability to control clay on a wheel. But (I was) able to weave willow rhythmically and with control…”
Catherine Beaumont weaving a basket
I saw similarities between Catherine’s baskets and the stitches I had chosen for my Gansey jumpers like the “herringbone” in the WEST group for example.
Today, Catherine has a dedicated customer following and her baskets are available to buy directly from her website and are stocked by:
