Braidwood Knitwear

23/11/2025

22/11/2025

Happy International Gansey Day to all those who celebrate it! Here's to our favourite dense, warm, woollen piece of knitwear, keeping us cosy, especially on rainy days like today. Hopefully all those meeting at Sheringham Museum are having a good time.

Taking 50 or 60 hours to knit, the gansey worked entirely by hand is the best made, most closely fitting jumper anyone could have. Knitted entirely in British wool, they are also very environmentally friendly.

Photos: Katy Harrald Pencil Artist
Models: Robin Mackenzie Illustration and Alastair Braidwood

10/11/2025

Rainy autumn days deserve handknitted comfort and cosiness. For extra cosiness, leave a gansey on a radiator overnight. Putting it on next morning is like wearing a hug!

Pure British wool: Blacker Yarns Guernsey 5-ply wool from Romney fleece, in maroon. Handknitted in Dorset.

03/11/2025

Gansey detail, in Blacker Yarns Black Turquoise Guernsey 5-ply. British Romney fleece, spun and dyed in Cornwall and handknitted in Dorset. A lovely colour, and motifs especially chosen for their feel and their look.

17/10/2025

The Athelhampton Livestream Gansey continues. Now with a new, extended collar, being turned over to make more comfortable. Then the sleeves!

This on the seafront at Sheringham, looking over the North Sea towards the wind turbines. The Museum there has an excellent collection of traditional ganseys. A return trip is required to investigate further.

11/10/2025

Day 8 of the Athelhampton Gansey Livestream begins very shortly, and goes on until 6pm tonight! Watch online: www.youtube.com//live

Photo by Dorset Morri'arty.

07/10/2025

Progress on the Athelhampton Livestream Gansey continues apace at Athelhampton House. Tune in from 9.30am BST every day this week to see it grow! https://www.youtube.com/live/EsX6ES3xPzM?si=AsfxvYZMcfyw4aI2

As the knitting goes on, so can you bid on the completed gansey online: https://www.athelhampton.com/gansey
It's coming out at about a 40" chest, and 24" back.

Photos: Dorset Morri'arty

07/10/2025

Good morning!

Just about set up at Athelhampton House ready to continue on Day 4 of the Athelhampton Gansey Livestream. Today I hope to finish the plain trunk, the last bit before the patterned motif begins.

Come and join me online, and chat: https://www.youtube.com/live/EsX6ES3xPzM?si=4vjmFVA3JXmLsIiA
Or even visit in real life! The house is open from 11am.

Don't forget to check out the new Braidwood Knitwear website: www.braidwoodknitwear.co.uk, and follow on IG and FB.

06/10/2025

Day 3 of the livestream:

🎥Live from Athelhampton!Day 3 of Alastair's extraordinary challenge: knitting a full Gansey from start to finish. Over 60 hours of work, 140,000 stitches. D...

03/10/2025

Day 2 of the gansey livestream starts in an hour. Watch on the Athelhampton House YouTube channel, until 5pm: https://www.youtube.com/

At the end of the first half-day, there was an inch of 3x3 rib, 324 stitches per round. There were some lovely comments from people, and interesting discussions about the merits of knitting or crochet. Some mentioned the relaxing nature of watching a craft slowly take shape, slow TV at its most hands-on.

You can bid on this special piece on the Athelhampton website: https://www.athelhampton.com/gansey

Most exciting news is that the website is now live! http://www.braidwoodknitwear.co.uk/

02/10/2025

🎥 We’re live! Join Alastair right now as he embarks on a extraordinary challenge: knitting a full Gansey from start to finish. Over 60 hours of work, 41000 stitches.

https://www.youtube.com//streams

30/09/2025

To celebrate the beginning of Braidwood Knitwear, and the launch of the website, Alastair Braidwood will be taking on a challenge: to knit a whole gansey from start to finish over the course of 10 days!

Hosted by the beautiful and historic Athelhampton House, the design will be inspired by the architecture of the house, and elements of the garden. As it grows, the gansey will be auctioned online. Also online, you can watch the knitwork grow live from the comfort of your own home: https://www.athelhampton.com/gansey.

Starting Thursday 2nd October at noon.
Thereafter: Fri 3rd, Mon 6th – Sat 11th, Mon 13th, Tues 14th, 9.30am – 5pm.