Dutch textile designer to take part in museum exhibition

There will be a final chance to see an exhibition of Dutch ganseys at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther.

As the touring exhibition closes, on Saturday and Sunday, the creator of the modern versions of the traditional fishing craft, textile expert Stella Ruhe, will visit Fife from Amsterdam.

She will be on hand to give visitors an insight into her research on the traditional fishermen’s knitted sweaters from the coasts and rivers of the Netherlands.

The Scottish Fisheries Museum is one of only two UK venues, along with the Sheringham Museum in Norfolk, to host the European tour of Stella’s recreated sweaters, or Visserstruien.

In Anstruther 40 of the 60 ganseys from the original exhibition are on display.

Stella travelled around the coastal villages of the Netherlands to identify multiple distinct patterns incorporated into fishermen’s jumpers.

She recreated 60 of them using modern yarn and traditional knitting methods.

The resulting exhibition, illustrated with archive photography, gives an insight into the cultural folk phenomenon and craft heritage which spans not only the entire coastline of the British Isles but also, as relatively recently discovered, down the coast of the Netherlands.

The museum also has its own collection of ganseys which, along with the entire collection, has been recognised as a nationally significant collection by the Scottish Government.

After Anstruther, Stella’s exhibition will move to Cordova in Alaska.

For more information on the weekend’s events visit scotfishmuseum.org.

Fishermen wearing some of the original ganseys.