WW1 Memorial Quilt – George

I am on a roll at the moment.  I think I was inspired by Armistice Day to put more effort into this project.

This piece is called George and I hope it is obvious what the occupation is – it is a letter to represent a postman.

This piece was named after George Skeer who was the husband of my 4^th cousin twice removed.  George was a postman but he became a sergeant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and died on 21 March 1918 aged 37.   This piece is also for my 2^nd cousin, three times removed - Francis Reginald Wade who was a rifleman in the 8^th battalion of the London Regiment (the Post Office Rifles).  He died on 24 July 1915 aged 24.

When I was thinking about what to knit for a postman – I did consider a pillar box, but I like the simplicity of a letter.  It is a bit of an odd shape – but at least it is not tall and narrow.  I chose the most “letter-like” shape for the postmen.  It is the second time this year that I have knitted words as blocks of colour – or in this case – blocks of grey.  I may embroider on some franking across the stamp.

This piece is 95sts wide and 66 rows high.  I mainly used Rowan Felted Tweed Shade: 177.

I am now working on a piece for a tailor and draper.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Jack

On Armistice weekend - It seemed suitable to start on another piece of my memorial quilt – so I designed and started knitting this piece.

This design is called Jack and it represents the unknown.  I do not know the occupation of a number of my soldiers.  I can’t find their enlistment records and in 1911 they were “At School”. 

The design for this piece is based on the Thiepval Memorial. I know – you can’t see it!  I had intended to produce a repeat pattern inspired by the shape of the memorial – however – I own a book called The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme by Gavin Stamp – in which there is a “floor” plan of the memorial and when I saw it I knew immediately – I am going to knit something like that.

I wanted to use the Thiepval Memorial for inspiration for soldiers of unknown occupation because it commemorates the unknown – the missing – the soldiers with no known burial site.  I have called it Jack for a special reason.  It is named after my grandfather’s cousin John Harris.   He was a rifleman in the 12^th battalion of the Rifle Brigade and died on 8 September 1916 aged 19.  What is strange about him is that I made him up and then found out he existed!

My grandfather said that his aunt and uncle did not have any children.  I thought this was unusual and one day I started thinking that if they had a son he would have been called John or Jack  Harris after his dad and he would have been born a year or so after the marriage – which would have made him the ideal age to die in World War 1.  I looked at the War Graves Commission website and typed in the name John Harris.  There are 700 men called John Harris who died but he was the third one I looked at – and I knew it was right because the record gave the name and address of his parents. 

Jack obviously wanted to be remembered after having been forgotten in the family for the best part of 80 years.  So this piece is for Jack and for all the other young men who died including another cousin twice removed - Frank Hatcher who died on 9 September 1918 aged 20, James William Merryweather my third cousin twice removed who died on 24 September 1917 aged 19, my third cousin three times removed Frederick Samuel Read who died on 16 June 1915 aged 19, and Lawrence Dimmick Willmett my second cousin three times removed who died aged 19 on 11 December 1917.  The latter was in the Royal Army Medical Corps – so he may have had a medical occupation but I don’t know what it was.

There are 2 other soldiers whom I should mention by name who are both recorded on the real Thiepval Memorial – Archibald Francis Jones who was my third cousin twice removed and John Deal who was my fourth cousin twice removed.  They both died aged 19.

For a blog about knitting – this post seems to be full of soldiers.  The knitting itself was very straightforward.   I used mainly stone colours to represent the memorial – but added the orange for a bit of contrast.  If you didn’t know the story behind the piece – it just looks like a graphic pattern.  That is the effect I wanted.

I am now working on the next piece and it is almost finished.  It was a much simpler pattern and much more portable.

WW 1 Memorial Quilt – Tom

It seemed appropriate this week that I would knit a piece for my great grandfather Thomas Wade who died in 1917.  I know I have mentioned him in previous years.  He didn’t want to fight – he wanted to stay at home with his family.  In the event – he was killed and his widow had to struggle to bring up his 3 sons.

Thomas was a glass fitter.  My grandfather said he was a cabinet maker, but on the 2 occasions when he gave his occupation - in 1909 when he married and on the 1911 census – he said he was a glass fitter.  I think he fitted glass in cabinets.  I always knew I would do a glass inspired piece of knitting for Tom.

This is very similar to the design for the tea packer which means that the arched shapes will be carried across the quilt. For this piece I cast on 79sts.  I had originally intended to do 80, but the design works better with an odd number of stitches and I have just altered the surrounding pieces accordingly.  This piece is 132 rows long.

I was just going to use blue and brown yarn but I decided to add the lime green for a bit of interest. Each blue arch shape is 15sts wide and 24 rows to the shaping (29 rows in total).  There are 2 rows at the bottom and top and 4 rows between shapes.  Across the row there are 5sts between the arches with one lime stitch in the centre.  There are 2sts each side of each row.  If you want to knit one – just draw the set-up on graph paper (or the back of an envelope) – that’s what I did.

I was thinking – you might not want to knit a memorial quilt but you could knit a quilt like this for another reason – eg you could do one for your family with a different piece of knitting to represent each person – or you could do one for a special person with each piece representing an important part of their life – or you could knit a quilt  for your community with each piece representing something important in your town or village. If I had enough old photos I would combine knitting with using photo transfer paste to produce a knitted family tree.  That’s enough mad ideas for this week…

WW1 Memorial Quilt - Horace

While I was away at my Mother’s last week – I knitted the next piece of my memorial quilt.

This piece is called Horace after Horace Edwin Willmett who was my second cousin, three times removed.  He was a private in the 7^th battalion of the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment who died on 7 March 1917 aged 26.  In civilian life he was a printer. 

The husband of my third cousin twice removed: Robert Bramall Dives also died in 1917 on 28 February.  He was a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery but in civilian life he was a compositor.

I nearly forgot to mention another printer – my third cousin three times removed – Henry George Cann who was in the Rifle Brigade.  He died on 30 June 1916 aged 32.  He is a recently discovered member of my family tree.

This was probably one of the easiest designs to think of and to knit.  It was obvious to choose words for a printer.  For this piece I cast on 134sts and worked 99 rows in stocking stitch.

I decided to use the trades and to knit them using the fair-isle technique.  I tried to use light colours with a dark background and dark colours with a light background. Some of them stand out better than others.  In the photos some are hard to read – eg Fireman – but it is not too bad in real life.  Also the end of Clerk looks a bit odd because of the flecks in the yarn.  I have done it right – but the K looks a bit warped.

Over the years, I have knitted lots of tea cosies with slogans on – so this idea was just an extension of that.  I hope I haven’t spelt anything wrong!  Once the letters are set up correctly they are fairly easy to knit.  When I was designing the pattern – I had to write the words on graph paper and then cut them out and stick them onto the blank pattern piece.  I couldn’t just mark them straight onto the pattern as I didn’t know how much space they would take up until I had written them (if you see what I mean).  I could have written them again instead of using glue but I am lazy! 

I also admit – that I have not exactly stuck to the pattern – sometimes I have started the words in a slightly different place – but it doesn’t matter.

I am now knitting the next piece.