Launch of Knitting the Herring, Scotland's National Gansey Network
The Scottish Fisheries Museum is excited to announce the launch of Knitting the Herring, Scotland’s National Gansey Network!
We have secured funding through Fife LEADER and Outer Hebrides LEADER to create a Scottish National Gansey Network, with the Museum leading on developing a National Gansey Collection for Scotland.
This project will run from June 2020 to 28 February 2021, although we anticipate this being the pilot for an ongoing project with a strong legacy involving ganseys, in association with knitting experts Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell. This would lead to a proposed ‘Festival of Ganseys’ to celebrate our dynamic and interesting gansey heritage in Scotland.
By creating a gansey collection database and a website to showcase our collections, photographs and knitting patterns, we will highlight the unique history and purpose of ganseys (knitted sweaters) in fishing communities. We will reach out to our project partners in Fife, the Outer Hebrides and beyond, to gather information on ganseys held in other museum collections or family homes to create the basis for a Scottish online archive of information and skills.
A new yarn will be used to develop a new gansey pattern, in collaboration with Di Gilpin and Uist Wool. A combination of virtual webinars, knitting demonstrations, gansey storage and preservation methods and interviews will form the event program for Knitting the Herring.
For more information, or if you would like to contribute to the project, please contact:
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Federica Papiccio, Project Coordinator (Collections): federica@scotfishmuseum.org
- Carolyn Cluness, Project Coordinator (Audience Development): carolyn@scotfishmuseum.org
