ALASTAIR Braidwood is a man of many talents. Well-known to fans of the New Hardy Players and Dorset folk music as a versatile musician, musical director and actor, he is also an experienced handknitter and he has just celebrated the launch of his new knitwear brand by knitting an entire fisherman’s gansey from start to finish.
The Braidwood Knitwear website has just been launched, and Alastair set himself the challenge of knitting a whole gansey over the course of 10 days, with the process being livestreamed around the world from the library at Athelhampton House.
“While I do have moments of chatter, I think a lot of people quite enjoy the quiet moments too, when there’s just the sound of the ticking clock, the bird-song from outside and the gentle sounds of the knitting,” he says. ‘Visitors ceme in and asked questions, so sometimes there was quite a lot of talking, often answering the same questions, but I’m trying to entertain as well as educate.”
The design motifs on the jumper have been inspired by the architecture of the house, and elements of the garden. Alastair chose the crenellations around the front of the house to represent the architecture and the yew pyramids for the gardens. Both of these elements appear in the house’s logo, so he thought they were appropriate.
Fishermen’s ganseys are defined by their “reliefwork” motifs across the chest and back, often portraying themes from the sea and coast, such as anchors, ropes and sails. They are found in coastal communities from Cornwall to Scotland. Traditionally knitted by hand and in-the-round, Alastair says his ganseys are close to the real thing: “I use only British wool spun in the traditional way for these ganseys. Each one is unique in its design, and tailored to fit the person who commissioned it.”
He says: “A gansey is the only jumper you’ll ever need. It’s dense enough to keep out the weather, but still thin enough to regulate temperature. The gansey styles easily with jeans and wellies, or a tweed jacket and brogues. The nature of the hand-knit means there are no seams to come undone and it is easily repairable. Indeed, easy repairability is in the DNA of the design.’
The Athelhampton gansey will be auctioned on the house’s website. Bids can be made at: https://www.athelhampton.com/gansey, and commissions for ganseys made at Alastair’s new website: https://www.braidwoodknitwear.co.uk/
Photograph by Dorset Morri’arty