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ganseys guernseys Knitting

Miss Flora Campbell’s Cardigan

My first ever piece of traditional knitting wasn’t a gansey. It was ‘Miss Flora Campbell’s cardigan’,  a 1930 Fair Isle cardigan, the pattern worked out in the classic (soon to be re-published!) ‘Traditional Knitting’, by Michael Pearson. Pearson’s book came out in 1984, and I must have clocked it within weeks of it landing in […]

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ganseys Genealogy History local history Textile Arts

Leitmotifs, motifs… and sharks!

Here’s Lewis Harding’s 1870 (ish) image of two little Polperro girls, Mary Jane Langmaid and Elizabeth Joliff, knitting. This is the iconic photo for people interested in the history of traditional knitting.  A couple of people used it in their presentations at Ganseyfest, and folk wondered if the photo was staged. One or two even […]