WW1 Memorial Quilt – Arthur

This week I have been knitting a filing cabinet!  There are a lot of knitting blogs out there but I doubt if any of the others contain that line. 

This is the next piece of my knitted quilt.  It is to remember several of my relatives who died in World War 1, but it is named after my third cousin twice removed – Arthur Edward Jones who was a Lance Corporal in the 6^th battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.  He was killed on 30 July 1915 aged 26.  Arthur was a clerk.  His brother and brother-in-law were also killed during the war.

My second cousin three times removed John Frederick Stenner was also killed. He was in the Grenadier Guards and was killed on 2 Oct 1916.  He was only 19 when he died but he had done office work as a young boy in 1911.  His cousin Edward Henry Stenner (who is also my second cousin three times removed was also in the Grenadier Guards and a clerk in civilian life.  He died on Christmas Eve 1914.

I don’t know what the occupation of “clerk” suggests to you – perhaps piles of paper, but I thought of a filing cabinet.  I am not exactly sure what a contemporary filing cabinet would have looked like – I looked at a few antiques online – and it seems it is likely to have been made of wood – so I decided to use brown yarn.

Originally I had thought of green.  I have an old green metal filing cabinet – but I think it is only about 50 years old rather than 100.  I think I will be using green yarn for other occupations – such as labourer and gardener – so I decided on brown for this piece.

For Arthur I cast on 67sts using my main colour  Shade 145 and then knitted 6 rows in the darker brown  Shade 169.  I used red – Shade 150 to outline the drawers which are knitted in light brown – Shade 157. The handles are the main shade again – and I used Shade 177 for the labels.  I knitted three columns of 4 drawers with 2 rows of the darker brown between each row, 2 sts each side and 3 sts between the drawers. There are 99 rows in total.  This is exactly the same size as Caleb – the first piece I knitted and at the moment – I intend them to be placed at opposite corners at the bottom of the quilt.

I drew the design on graph paper but once I had done the set up row to get the first row of drawers in the right place – I did not really need to refer to the diagram.

Now I am going to start knitting a piece to remember the printers and compositors in my family. 

Free Your Fade

Free Your Fade is the latest design by Andrea Mowry of DreaReneeKnits.com.  A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of the Tangled Yarn newsletter and it advertised this shawl as well as a variation on the Hitchhiker pattern – Hitchhiker Beyond.  I ordered both immediately and started knitting this shawl as soon as the pattern arrived.

I think I have almost finished it.  At least I haven’t got much yarn left so it will have to be nearly finished!  You are encouraged to use any yarn of any thickness. 

I have used 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto Luxury Sock yarn in Shade 04.  The idea of the shawl is to change from one colour to another whenever you like.  The pattern describes two colours changes.  I have knitted it in one shade but have changed balls following the pattern – so I have two colour changes, but my colour changes are very subtle.

When I started knitting this shawl – I took it out 3 times until I got the hang of the pattern.  It is me – the pattern is excellent.  I was tempted by the previous design called Find Your Fade shawl – but decided it is a bit too big – this one is a more manageable size – both to knit and to wear.  I may have a go at Find Your Fade but make it smaller.  I thoroughly recommend Free Your Fade to all shawl fans.

I am now going to get back to the serious stuff.  I have started knitting the next piece of my Memorial Quilt.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Fred – Finished Piece

I have finished my second piece – I told you it was easy!

This piece is called Fred and is based on the occupation of tea packer.  A rough pattern is given below.

I used brown (Rowan Felted Tweed Shade 145)for the background and 15 other shades (from the top left to right  158, 150, 181, 151, 157, Mink, 154, 184, 159, 177, 192, 186, 175, 161, 195)  I used separate balls of each colour – winding 3 balls of brown.

Using 4mm needles I cast on 67sts and knit 165 rows.  I knit 2 rows in brown and then did a “set-up” row to place the colours as follows: K7 in brown, K9 in first shade, K15 in brown, K9 in second shade, K15 in brown, K9 in third shade, K2 in brown.  For the next 4 rows I decreased the brown by one st and increased the colours correspondingly until I had 2sts in brown, 19sts in Shade 1, 3sts in brown, 19sts in  Shade 2, 3sts in brown, 19sts in Shade 3 and 2sts in brown.  I worked 18 more rows straight – so you have 19 rows without “shaping”.  I then reversed the procedure I had used at the bottom to reduce the coloured sections down to 9sts again.  I then worked 4 rows in brown, and started the with 3 new colours and so on.  When I had completed the 165^th row, I cast off in brown.

If you want to try it – it may be best to draw it on graph paper first.  As with the first piece – the pattern sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

While I have been knitting this piece – I have been thinking about patterns for some of the other pieces.  I am going to start another piece this week but at the moment I am knitting a shawl.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Fred

I have started working on a second piece of my knitted patchwork quilt.    I am calling it Fred after Frederick Charles Connew who was my third cousin twice removed. He was a private in the 2^nd Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment who died on 25 September 1915 aged 21.  

According to the 1911 census Frederick was a tea packer working for a tea merchant – presumably in London where he lived.  I think this could have been quite dangerous work, as tea can be explosive if it forms a dust cloud.  The design I have come up with for this piece is based on the tops of tea chests.

Originally I intended to do columns of 4 shapes – but now I have decided to do 3 columns of 5 shapes – this means that this piece uses 16 different shades of Rowan Felted Tweed but it could be knitted with just 2 one for the “centres” and one for the background.  I have used my main colour – brown for the background.

This piece is knitting up very quickly.  I think there are 2 reasons for this – firstly it is quite interesting to knit and secondly because  it is easier to knit than the first piece - the yarn does not get so tangled.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Caleb

I have completed my first piece of the WW1 memorial quilt.  This piece is called Caleb and the design in inspired by the occupation of “painter”.  It is very colourful and is more a modern idea of painting than one from the early part of the twentieth century when a painter probably painted walls white and railings black.  Anyway the design doesn’t have to be too literal.

I had considered doing a chart for the pattern but it is much easier just to type it – even if it seems a bit long-winded.   There are only 2 rows. Don’t read the next bit if you have no interest in knitting Caleb.  I am including it as a record of what I have done in case anyone does one to do it.

I used 4mm needles and 7 shades of Rowan Felted Tweed.
Shade 145 - Brown

Shade 151 - Mauve
Shade 167 - Blue
Shade 158 - Green
Shade 181 - Yellow
Shade 154 - Orange
Shade 150 - Red

Before you start wind a second ball of Mauve, Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange.

I cast on 67sts using the Brown yarn which I am going to use as a main colour for the whole quilt.  I tried to loosely strand the colours across the back of the work but I seem to have done it looser on one side than the other.

Row 1: K4 in Mauve, K1 Blue, K1 Mauve, K4 Blue, K1 Green, K1 Blue, K4 Green, K1 Yellow, K1 Green, K4 Yellow, K1 Orange, K1 Yellow, K4 Orange, K1 Red, K1 Orange, K7 Red, K1 Orange, K1 Red, K4 Orange, K1 Yellow, K1 Orange, K4 Yellow, K1 Green, K1 Yellow, K4 Green, K1 Blue, K1 Green K4 Blue, K1 Mauve, K1 Blue, K4 Mauve.

Row 2: P5 in Mauve, P1 Blue, P1 Mauve, P4 Blue, P1 Green, P1 Blue, P4 Green, P1 Yellow, P1 Green, P4 Yellow, P1 Orange, P1 Yellow, P4 Orange, P1 Red, P1 Orange, P5 Red, P1 Orange, P1 Red, P4 Orange, P1 Yellow, P1 Orange, P4 Yellow, P1 Green, P1 Yellow, P4 Green,  P1 Blue, P1 Green P4 Blue, P1 Mauve, P1 Blue, P5 Mauve.

I hope the instructions are correct – it is much easier to knit than type the instructions.

Repeat these 2 rows until 99 rows have been completed. Cast off using Brown.

I am now going to block the piece – that may sort out some of the irregularities in the knitting!

I have done a rough plan for the second piece of this quilt – I have been thinking about it while I have been knitting the first one, but I also intend to knit a thick jumper that appealed to me.  I think I will make a start on that next.

Old Knitting Patterns

This week I have been doing a lot of over-time –so I haven’t done much knitting.  On my only day off last Saturday – I went to the Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting in Oxford.  We looked at some of the Guild’s historic items including stockings knitted in very fine yarn, a fair-isle jumper, and a crocheted tea cosy cover commemorating the end of World War 1.  It was interesting to see them.  I meant to take some photos – but I forgot! At least one of the items – a wrap made from little granny squares - came from an old Vogue Knitting magazine and when I saw it – I thought – I have got some of them from the 1950s or 1960s.

This is actually a Stitchcraft magazine from 1963 but it is similar to some of the Vogue magazines that I have somewhere.  The patterns are so old that they have come back into fashion – but most of the sizes are so small they wouldn’t fit me.  In fact this magazine includes an attractive unisex jumper which means it has larger sizes to fit the men – I might add it onto my list of patterns to knit one day.

When I was trying to find another shawl pattern to knit – I looked through the box files that I have full of old patterns cut out of magazines – and thought many of them need throwing out as they look so dated.  In fact they are only about 10 years old – but that was the time of funky fur and other strange fashion yarns – now we seem to be in an era where more traditional yarn is prized.  However, I suppose if I keep them long enough – they will come back into fashion again.

Incidentally – I didn’t find any shawl patterns – shawls were not in fashion 10 years ago.  However 30 years ago – when I was a student – they were.  One of the first garments I ever knitted was a bramble stitch shawl.  I have still got the pattern for that – I will have to knit another one – something else to add to the list.

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!