Geansai Gaelach - An Irish Jumper. My First Ever Garment Knitting Pattern is Live. 19 sizes.

The Geansaí Gaelach pattern is inspired by an exquisite Aran gansey, or geansaí, held at the National Museum of Ireland (obtained 1942). Showcased in the ‘Is Fashion Modern?’ exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (2017) and in the ‘Changing Ireland’ gallery in Dublin’s Collins Barracks (2025), it was and has remained an iconic representative of the Aran style.

 

The fishermen and the Herring Girls took their knitting wherever they worked. In this way the gansey style spread and developed all around the British Isles and Ireland from around the 19^th Century. The all-over combination of central panels, bobbles and cables that we now recognise as the Aran style, developed as recently as the early 1900’s in Ireland and has a well-documented history. Borne of the old ganseys, the Aran style became and remains colloquially Irish.

 

“The jerseys that the women knit are white or indigo... and on these square shaped garments they improvise, as a musician will improvise on some simple melody, their own individual fancies. There are circles and ellipses and zigzag lines and dots like a chain of pearls, and loops and lovers’ knots and lines like rippled water”.

 

This design is compiled by adapting just a few of the original motifs. It is an homage to the Ireland of my ancestors and to the knitting traditions I am so fortunate to have inherited through my mothers and grandmothers.

 

Geansai Gaelach is made using 5 ply (sports weight) Propagansey Corriedale wool. It comes in 19 sizes from (a): 47 cm to (s): 178 cm chest. Adult sizes are given in both female and male proportions.

The children’s sizes broadly equate to: 

(a): 0 to 6 months, (b): 6-18 months, (c): 1 to 2.5 years, (d): 2 to 4 years, (e): 4 to 6 years, (f): 6 to 8 years and (g): 8 to 10 years.

Sizes: (a to g): 240(280,330,440/520,640,760) metres. 

Sizes (h to s): Women’s:(930/1030,1130,1230,1360/1480,1640,1840,2070/2290,2450,2630)metres & Men’s: (1020/1150,1245,1300,1480/1640,1830,2030,2285/2520,2680,2860) metres.

Gauge: 28 sts x 36 rows = 10 cm.

Needles: 3.5 & 2.75 mm circular or double pointed needles and cables to suit (or those to obtain gauge).

Available at my Etsy store or at Ravelry. All sizes are within this pattern.

 

 This is the original, held at the National Museum of Ireland. Link HERE to a lovely story about Aran knitting.

Black Walnut Dyed Alpaca. 2Ply Lace Weight

 https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/946939858/walnut-dyed-alpaca-lace-weight-yarn?ref=shop_home_active_1

Natural walnut, kettle dyed alpaca in lace weight. It has been washed firstly in bags on a wool cycle, then hand washed and thoroughly rinsed again.
There are two cakes, I’m saying 440grams ($88) and 560grams ($112)... but they are little a bit over that. I will take $185 for both. Plus postage from Victoria Australia. So, AU$10 per 50g of very soft alpaca.
It’s a beautiful colour, so rich and warm. Like wheat but deeper. Like my daughter’s hair when she was a little button. 
Please message me if you want to purchase only one skein (cake) and I will alter the listing.

Bobby's Grandma's Bouclé Wristwarmers

New little pattern available for $3AUD in my Ravelry or Etsy shops.

My vast hoard of yarn includes a few snippets of very old wool, given to me by my Grandma. One of these is the gorgeous lavender pebble-dashed bouclé seen here, which is now all but used up. It must be at least fifty years old. Good thing I hung on to it huh? Always a sensible thing to do. 

I did (and do) intend to make another pair of these, using the leftover wool purchased for my Fair Isle Thistle Wristwarmer's and Tam o'Shanter. I'll add them as a project on Ravelry very soon.

OK, so my original plan was to see how far I could take the 10 balls of Jamieson's Spindrift, but I was distracted by the bouclé.

Bobby's Fair Isle Tam o'Shanter Pattern

Just published the pattern on Ravelry and Etsy. Thanks Jen Next Door and Anna for modelling the tams for me! xxx

My First Ever Knitting Pattern

Pattern available at my Etsy shop.

Traditional Fair Isle patterning is a world of countless possibilities! 
These Wristwarmers are a play on shading and have been inspired both by my love of traditional knitting design and an all-consuming love fest with the many, many beautiful colours of Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift yarn.
How we place our shades and how many colours we choose... the positioning of lights and darks... Each will completely alter the appearance of a single pattern.
You may, of course, use any 4 ply for your own version. I sometimes like to mix fluffy or shiny yarns in with heathers etc. It’s a good project for stash-diving, or better, a happy excuse to buy new colours. 
I have added a black and white chart in case you want to mess about colouring in your own version. Get the kids involved. Remembering that each pair or grouping of colours needs to play well together and you're off and running. 
It's the funnest!

Rose & Little Bird Penny Rug Updated Pattern

Finally finished and wrote out the pattern for the new version of my Penny Rug! Yay!

You will find it as a PDF download at my Etsy store. 

This is the original...

And this is the new...

27th & 28th September at the Melbourne Show

I promised to put some links to various rug hooking and prodding information. So here 'tis:
The Yarra Valley Rugmakers (some of the Victorian Rugmakers) has a load of good links down the left side of the blog. Links to tutorials, suppliers and so on. Also, wander through the blog to see what the group is up to. There is quite a variety of styles among the few members. Anyone is welcome! We're a friendly lot!
Also, please follow the link to my Flickr page, to see more of my work. Any of the links here on the right with 'Bobby' are mine.

It's always nice to see interest in the craft. I heard some great stories. One fellow told me about his granny from up Numurka way, born around 1890? The floorboards had rotten away in their house and she spent every spare moment with a rug on her knee, covering the floors then making more for all the family. Right up until her death at a great age she made rugs. He still had her tools, but none of the rugs survived.

My inspiration for the Footy Rug. From a drawing by Paul Constance, an enigmatic fellow at my work. He doodles sport cartoons the whole time and I've collected quite a few over time. This had always seemed a good rug design, so I blew up the drawing and we fooled around with the back character, minutely. 
Now, I'm hooking it with Dad and Grandma's clothes. Which is funny because they'd not really want to mingle (in-law's you see). I'm forcing reconciliation with their clothes.
Cutting up Grandma's old shirts, I saw her 'short-cut' hemming technique. She did a tiny back stitch from the right side, then took a bite of  4mm or so, which looks like a running stitch on the inside. I showed a lady after we talked about ... stuff... and said only I in the world would recognise my Grandma's hand. I got a bit teary (but I think I got away with it. I'm good at hiding tears, it's my Anglo heritage).

If you look to the bottom right, you can see my outline drawing for the Footy Rug. 

Here's the old Proddy Rug on the go, still. One on the go and one on the floor

And this is some old lady that has absconded with my youth. 
Little secret? The white stripes on the footy players jumper is Dad's jocks.

"O My Dove' Sampler Pattern Finished

I really love this pretty verse. It speaks to me of the welcome place a friend or lover makes for us, so that we might open our heart. We yearn for someone to want to draw us out. Pattern available at my Etsy shop.

Made in 1994.

Mum

Both of these photo's were taken during Mum and Dad's honeymoon, April 1955, when Mum was 21 years old.
Having a sky as background makes them work as tapestries, I reckon. 

Go to my Etsy shop if you want anything done, won't you.

Another Bobble Cushion

I have the pattern for sale over at Etsy. This one I've added a side panel, gathered fairly tightly. The back has a zip. I dyed it after I'd finished.
My other (first) one is here. It's actually quite a bit smaller, not having the gathered edge.

New Bluebird (Name In Progress) & P.S. Got A New Camera At Last!

Peek preview of a new pattern/kit I'm doing:

An old favourite, the bluebird. Surrounded by an embroidered version of one of my colouring book borders on a scrap of silk that threatened to be too subtle with the gold silk. However, Grandma's old fringing (which I've had for 25-30 years) lifted the design, as did the old blue velvet (Op-Shop). The colours look amazing on my beautiful chaise.

Dress For Shirley and Theodora

A friend at work gave me the ‘It’s a Girl’ cards to make the dress. Her daughter can be a bit of a ‘tear-away’ so she thought it would be nice if something sweet and pretty was made from all of those hopes and wishes given at her birth, to reflect the sweetness she hides underneath the troubles. These lovely old cards are mixed with a vintage childrens' illustrated book (which name I do not have but will try to find). All are to fit 5 year old Shirley and Theodora (Dicephalic Parapagus Twins), although it may be a little scratchy.

The inside of the dress is the story from the greetings and poetry from the cards and some more story.

 

For sale in my Etsy Shop.