WW1 Memorial Quilt

I have started knitting my WW1 Memorial Quilt.

This is the first part of the first piece.  I was going to say – “square” but the pieces will not be square.  At the moment I intend to knit about 24 different-sized pieces – each one representing the civilian occupation of one of my soldiers or sailors who died in the First World War. 

The first piece represents those men who were painters.  I am calling it “Caleb” after Caleb Brown Smith who died in January 1917.  He was a painter.  He was also the first man I put on my list when I started a list of family members who died in the First World War.  When I recorded the details of his death – I realised that I had noticed a lot of family members who had died in the War  – and even since I have started planning this quilt – I have added more names to my list – one of these – George Symonds who died on 2 August 1917 was also a painter.

Originally I had intended to knit a representation of half-painted wall for the painters of the family  – but now I had decided to use a rainbow of colours.  This design has another link to the First World War – because it is similar to the colours of the ribbon of the Victory Medal which was given to each man.  I had thought of just knitting stripes but the blended sections were suggested to me by the woven part of the ribbon.

I know you can’t see much of Caleb yet – I should get more done this week.  Over the years, I have tried lots of methods of preventing the yarns from tangling.  At the moment I am using the knit a few rows and then untangle them.  This is also the method I am using on my Knit the Sky scarf.  If any of the pieces involve more serious intarsia – I think that winding the yarn onto bobbins works best.

I am knitting tea cosies again at the moment – but every day – I do a few more rows of this piece.  This project is a labour of love and could take some time!