Happy 4th Birthday Maud Tabron Blog

I can’t believe I have been writing this blog for 4 years.  As usual when I start my review of the year – I think I haven’t done much and then I look back through my blog posts and realise that I have done lots of knitting during the past year.

The year started with me knitting fruit tea cosies and fruit and vegetables for All the Fun of the Fair.  It was quite a challenge and I think some looked much better than others. 

Throughout the whole of 2017 – I was knitting my Knit the Sky scarf.  It was quite an interesting exercise but it was a bit of a chore some days.  I still now look at the sky  to see what colour it is and then think – “you don’t need to do that anymore”.

I know I have knitted lots of different shawls during the year – and they were mostly “relaxing” knitting – just something to knit – I wear some of them more than others.

I am particularly pleased with the 2 throws I knitted last year and the WW1 Memorial Quilt which is an ongoing project.  I attended a Knitting and Crochet Guild workshop on how to knit  a 10-stitch blanket and although I found it difficult at first – but once I got the hang of it – I knitted a whole blanket and then a second one made up of lots of central sections.

I hope it won’t be long before I have a whole WW1 Memorial Quilt to show you.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Jim - Polisher

After I had finished knitting the piece of my quilt for the soldiers, I immediately started a small piece which I intend to be in the top right-hand corner.

This piece is to remember the polishers and French polishers in my family who died in World War 1.   It is called Jim after my second cousin, twice removed: James Henry Wade who was a polisher in civilian life and a Lance corporal in the 16^th battalion of the Rifle Brigade who died on 7 August 1917 aged 20.

This piece is also dedicated to my first cousin, 4 times removed: Henry Carr who was a French polisher and a private in the 20^th battalion of the Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex) Regiment.  He died on 28 Aug 1916 aged 46. 

For this piece I cast on 50sts and worked 66 rows.  I think it looks like a flower!  However, it is supposed to be a screwed up cloth on a piece of wood.  That was the idea anyway!

I am on a roll again at the moment and I am just about to start my next piece dedicated to those who worked with bottles – both full and empty!

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Edward - Soldier

This week I have completed the piece of my quilt which is dedicated to the professional soldiers.  Some of them died during the war – and some of them fought throughout – and came home injured mentally and/or physically.

 When I first thought about designing a piece for the men who were soldiers before the war started – I first thought about doing interlocking crosses.  Then I thought about doing a “toy soldier” but I didn’t want to belittle their efforts.  When I think of soldiers I tend to think of shiny buttons and polished boots and being killed.  Then I remembered the songs that the soldiers use to sing.  I considered them but then settled on using the song - Where Have All the Flowers Gone? as inspiration.

This design consists of 4 rows of 5 regular blocks of colour, but each row of blocks means something to me.  The first row of blue blocks represents blue collar workers or ordinary working class men.  The next row – is a row of soldiers.  The third row represents gravestones, and the last row – flowers.  I know it is a bit morbid – but then the whole quilt is a bit morbid.  I am sure when you looked at this piece of knitting for the first time – you thought “that is attractive” rather than “that is morbid”!

For this piece I cast on 67sts and knit 165 rows.  Each block is 7sts wide and 30 rows high – 15 rows of each shade.  There are 6sts between blocks, 4sts each side, 10 rows between blocks – with 8 at the beginning and 7 at the end.  It was quite easy to knit because I wound the colours onto bobbins – so I didn’t get as tangled up as usual.

To come back to the title for the piece – it is called Edward to remember my great great uncle Edward Benn.  He was not a blood relative but married to my great great aunt Elizabeth Longhurst.  He was a private in 23^rd battalion of the London Regiment who was killed on 13 November 1916 aged 26.  My grandma told me about his small son Teddy – who she used to find tucked in at the bottom of her bed when her aunt had turned to her sister for support.  Very sadly Elizabeth lost Teddy in the World War 2.

This piece is also to remember my third cousin, twice removed: Herbert Victor Jones who was a corporal in the 1^st battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light infantry who died on 8 May 1917 aged 25 and my fourth cousin, four times removed: William Edward Morrish who was a soldier in India before the war and who died on 24 July 1915 aged 30, a CQMS in the 2^nd battalion of the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

This piece is also dedicated to my fourth cousin, twice removed: Henry Thomas (Harry) Hamlyn who was a soldier as early as 1911 – he was a private in the 2^nd battalion of the Devonshire Regiment who died on 1 July 1916 – the first day of the battle of the Somme – aged 23.  He was one of three brothers who were all killed in the war.

I would also like to mention my great grandfather Frank Henry Taylor and his brother-in-law Sam Drew who both came from a military background, fought throughout the war and returned home.  Frank was invalided out of the army and Sam went on to join the Merchant Navy – I don’t think civilian life suited Sam.  I should also remember all those other soldiers who fought and returned home deeply affected by their experiences.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Harold – Farm Labourer

This week I have been working on my WW1 Memorial Quilt again and have completed Harold – a piece to remember the farm labourers in my family who died in World War 1. 

This piece is named after Harold Sedlen Miller who was my 3^rd cousin, 3 times removed.  He was a Private in the Household Cavalry who died on 10 Oct 1918 aged 22.  He was from Charlton Musgrove in Somerset and had presumably gained experience with horses from working on his family’s farm.   It is also to remember my 3^rd cousin, twice removed Horace Edwin Deal who was also the son of a farmer.  He was a Private in the 1^st Battalion of the East Kent Regiment and he died on 10 May 1918 aged 20 and a farm labourer, my 4^th cousin, twice removed Herbert Stephen Upton who as a Private in the 1^st Battalion of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment who died on 18 April 1915 aged 21.  Several other men were described as labourers  -  and some of these may have worked on a farm but I am going to do another square for all my “General labourers”.

In case you are not sure – this piece is supposed to be fields.  I had originally thought of doing them with fewer straight  borders – but that would have been much harder to knit.

I used several shades of Rowan Felted Tweed in brown, green, mauve and yellow.  I cast on 111sts in my main dark brown colour and then knitted 9 squares – some plain, some striped and some spotted.  The piece in total is 132 rows long.

This has been one of the easier pieces to knit. It was easy to think of and easy to knit.  I am now working on the next piece which is to represent my dead soldiers who were soldiers before the war started.

Estonian Nups

On Saturday I attended the Oxford Branch meeting of the Knitting & Crochet Guild.  It was the first day at our new venue and at a new time.  In case anyone wants to call in when they are visiting Oxford – it is usually the first Saturday in the month from 11-3 in part of the Makerspace on the first floor of Oxford Central library (which is on the edge of the Westgate shopping centre).  From 11-1 we are going to just do knitting and chatting – and then from 1 until 3 we are going to do something more structured.

Normally I go to Oxford Yarn Store before our meetings but this time I thought I had better be there from 11 in case no one else was.  Next month I expect I will be back at the Yarn Store.  I was glad to hear that the lady who had come to teach us about Estonian Nups had been up to the Yarn Store. 

I must admit I didn’t know what an Estonian Nup was  - however when I started knitting one – I knew I had done them before.  I thought it was when I was knitting one of the Arizona Dream throws for Colinette but although the effect looks similar – the instructions seem to be different – but my fingers knew how to do them – so I have definitely done them before at some time.

This is the sample that I made during the session.  It is not too bad.  It is not as neat as it could be.  I also dropped 2 stitches.  The first one – you can see on the back – but the second one – I realised and managed to pick it up again on the next row.   You have to purl 5 together – and it is very easy to only purl 4 and drop one.  It is also quite easy to purl 6 together and accidentally include the next stitch.

Apparently the Estonians knitted fine shawls to sell – and the tended to be sold by the weight – so if they included Nups – they added interest and they added weight – so they could charge more money for their finished work.

Jacket for a Baby Boy

I have finished knitting this little blue jacket for a baby that is due in April.

I meant to use a published pattern and I tried but in the end I changed most of it.  It was an old magazine pattern from 2007.  I had kept it because I liked the look of it and I thought it might do for a baby boy.

The smallest size is for 0-6months.  This would be OK but you are told to cast on 58sts for the Back.  Now I usually do around 50sts for 0-3 months.  I didn’t want to make something huge that the mother will have forgotten about by the time the baby fits it, so I reduced the number of stitches to 50. This meant I had to change the fronts and the decreasing on the raglans as well.

I have forgotten to mention that I used 3.75mm needles instead of the stated 4mm.  So I used different yarn, different needles and a different amount of stitches and a different number of rows – so it is only the general appearance of the design that is the same as the original.

I also think there may be mistakes in the pattern – for example the button bands suggest that you only rib 2 rows and then repeat those 2 rows once more.  However the photo clearly shows a much wider band with 8 or 9 rows.  I did neither and settled on 7 rows!  I wish I could find a pattern that I could just knit.  Perhaps I should have done my usual one – I have knitted it so many times that I do what I did before – it is nothing like the original published pattern- but it works.

I still haven’t finished the pink cat cardigan that I am knitting.  I have knitted all the boring bits but now I need to do the bit with the cat on.  I need to sit at home an concentrate on it – I couldn’t travel around with it – like I could the blue jacket – that is why this has got done first.  I do hope to get the pink cardigan finished this week so I can get back to my Memorial Quilt.