On 1/29/07, Ware Petznick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Have you tried this
> http://www.geocities.com/barrenriver1833/guernsey_frock_page.html

Yep. Those are the sweaters/jumpers that are different from the undershirts.

> Guernsey frocks seem to be distinguished by being oiled?

The oil they are talking about is the wool still have the "grease" or
lanolin in it. When you spin yarn, you can either process it so that
you take most of the natural lanolin out of it or leave some or all of
it in. Most of the time, it is taken out because people don't want to
wear greasy sweaters. But for fisherman's sweaters and other garments
meant to be worn as protection from bad weather, the grease is often
left in to make the garment more water-resistant. Yarn for guernsey
sweaters was tightly spun to begin with and the sweaters were knitted
at a small gauge to make them water-repellant as well.

Got tons of research on those. What's interesting is that there are
many articles that mention that "guernseys" were made for 400 years or
so but knitting them as an industry only starts up in the 1800s after
the hand-knit stocking industry dries out. And looking at clothing
lists, when the "guernsey" is mentioned, do people mean the sweater or
the undershirt? It gets confusing after a while. You'd think that
people would be more specific. :)

Deb

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