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Gansey Yarn: Have You Tried 5-Ply?
Known for their strength and stitch definition, gansey yarns can be hard to find. A new Shetland 5-ply has launched, and we had to get on board!
Ganseys—also called guernseys or jerseys in some regions—were fitted, hardwearing knitted workwear common to fishermen up and down the coasts of Great Britain and the Netherlands. Knitters have long pored over old nineteenth-century portraits of fishermen in their ganseys to decipher stitch patterns. And despite the fact that most of these sweaters were dyed a deep, dark blue and photographed in sepia, the motifs worked in knits and purls are often easily seen—thanks to the classic gansey 5-ply.
Why 5-ply? Gansey researcher Beth Brown-Reinsel says that these yarns were sometimes referred to as “seaman’s iron.” The smooth and dense, tightly plied yarn could be knitted on small needles into patterns where every purl stitch pops and cables can be seen from across a crowded room.
Smooth gansey-style yarns make every stitch pop! Power of Ten Socks by Carol Huebscher Rhoades. Find it in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.
Jamieson & Smith just added a new 5-ply yarn collection, and I’ve been curious to give it a try. Being a lover of all things woolly, my interest was piqued when I read on the company’s website that this yarn uses a grade of Shetland wool that is “slightly hardier than what we usually use for our knitting yarns but we wanted a hard-wearing quality and due to the yarn being Worsted Spun (combed rather than carded). It meant we could use a slightly rougher grade as the spinning process improves the handle of the yarn. It’s really important to try and utilise as much of the wool clip as we can and we are really happy to be able to add some more value to this grade.”
Ganseys—also called guernseys or jerseys in some regions—were fitted, hardwearing knitted workwear common to fishermen up and down the coasts of Great Britain and the Netherlands. Knitters have long pored over old nineteenth-century portraits of fishermen in their ganseys to decipher stitch patterns. And despite the fact that most of these sweaters were dyed a deep, dark blue and photographed in sepia, the motifs worked in knits and purls are often easily seen—thanks to the classic gansey 5-ply.
Why 5-ply? Gansey researcher Beth Brown-Reinsel says that these yarns were sometimes referred to as “seaman’s iron.” The smooth and dense, tightly plied yarn could be knitted on small needles into patterns where every purl stitch pops and cables can be seen from across a crowded room.
Smooth gansey-style yarns make every stitch pop! Power of Ten Socks by Carol Huebscher Rhoades. Find it in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.
Jamieson & Smith just added a new 5-ply yarn collection, and I’ve been curious to give it a try. Being a lover of all things woolly, my interest was piqued when I read on the company’s website that this yarn uses a grade of Shetland wool that is “slightly hardier than what we usually use for our knitting yarns but we wanted a hard-wearing quality and due to the yarn being Worsted Spun (combed rather than carded). It meant we could use a slightly rougher grade as the spinning process improves the handle of the yarn. It’s really important to try and utilise as much of the wool clip as we can and we are really happy to be able to add some more value to this grade.”
[PAYWALL]
Two classics from Jamieson & Smith (from left): 5-ply, which is a combed and worsted-spun yarn, and 2-ply jumper weight, which is a carded and woolen-spun yarn.
I ordered two balls of 5-ply, which are sister colors—the same color dye on white and gray base yarns: Turquoise and Turquoise Twilight. I started off swatching in stockinette stitch, but I really wanted to put this yarn through its paces. I settled on the Power of Ten Socks by Carol Huebscher Rhoades, which you can find by popping over to the library.
The yarn is firm and smooth, easily knitted into a nice crisp ribbing on a US 0 (2 mm). As I knitted, I found this yarn to more supple than expected. The ply twist is tight enough to create a nice cohesive yarn that doesn’t split easily (using my trusty bamboo DPNs), but just loose enough to allow the plies to easily shift as the yarn folds into each stitch. I expect this to wear like “seaman’s iron” but it doesn’t knit like wire!
After knitting just the cuff (switching to a US 1 (2.25 mm) for the body of the cuff as indicated in the pattern), I slipped the stitches onto scrap yarn, washed the cuff, and laid flat to dry. I found that the cast-on edge grew slightly after blocking, but the rib and the cable-and-lace rib grew a fair bit. I expect this is due to the combination of knitter, pattern, gauge, fiber, and yarn. A coarser fiber dramatically increases durability but often has less crimp and elasticity. Depending on the project, the trade-off is well worth it. For this sock, it’s an easy fix. I’ll ravel back to where I switched to the larger needle size and reknit on the smaller needle. This will be time well spent since, in the end, I’ll have a better fit for a pair of boot socks I expect to last a good long while.
—Kate
Links
Brown-Reinsel, Beth. Knitting Ganseys: Techniques and Patterns for Traditional Sweaters. Fort Collins, CO: Interweave, 2018.
J&S Blog, “5ply Shetland.” October 13, 2023. jamiesonandsmith.wordpress.com/2023/10/13/5ply-shetland
Kate Larson, editor of Spin Off, teaches handspinning around the country, has published knitting patterns in books and magazines, and spends as many hours as life allows in the barn with her beloved flock of Border Leicesters.
