The Widow Cross had but one son and indeed he was his mother's pride and joy So she knitted him a gansey, cable stitched both fine and fancy and it looked like royal robes upon the boy How we knew his bright blue eyes How we knew his golden hair And the gansey that his mother made was fine beyond compare Tall and bright was Davy Cross, with a smiling face that never bore a frown How the lasses smiled and sighed, at his strong and manly stride On a Friday when the fishing fleet left town For they ... At the dance on Saturday, the lasses fairly swooned to dance with him How they fluttered at his charms, as he held them in his arms, And their hearts beat faster at his boyish grin For they ... Then one dark October day, there came a storm which drove us hard to lea And our fishing fleet was tossed, yet just one single craft was lost Leaving Widow Cross a gazing out to sea Well she ... When just ten weeks had passed and gone, they finally brought us news about the loss Seemed a body had been found, of a sailor lost and drowned And in our hearts we knew 'twas Davy Cross For we ... But it wasn't eyes of blue, nor that hair as pale as foam It was the gansey that his mother made that brought young Davy home
recording: The Melrose Quartet [YouTube]
history: knitting and mending a gansey [Sister Mountain]
history: gansey patterns [BBC North Yorkshire]