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.