Two Great Grannies

The first of the two Great Grannies is the least important - my new crochet pattern.

I've thoroughly enjoyed making this blanket which has turned out very big by my standards. It's about 150 cm square; I normally get fed up making things long before they get to that size. It took me quite a long time to choose the colours and, although it may look random, there's a definite plan to their arrangement. I really don't do random.

You can download the free pattern for my Great Granny blanket from  Ravelry as normal. And here's one more photo, complete with furry assistant.

The 'Great' in the pattern name obviously refers to the fact that it's one big square but I was also thinking of a real life Great Granny when I was working on it. My much missed Granny (my children's Great Granny) who I spent many hours with making Granny square blankets.

My Granny, Ida, was born in 1915. Her father worked on the railways, as did her two brothers and a brother-in-law. The family moved around a fair bit; I have my Great Grandmother's old postcards, dating from 1904 and the addresses all begin 'Railway Cottages' ...

Here she is on her wedding day in December 1935. I think her dress is absolutely beautiful.

Now my Grandad, Frank, was a builder but, more importantly (as he would probably have said), he was also a Pigeon fancier. For those who don't know anything about this world, this means he kept racing pigeons at the top of the garden. Which is why so many of the family photos have a pigeon loft as the backdrop. Here's my Mum all dressed up in front of the loft ...

... and with her sister and parents in front of the loft ...

I think it could do with a lick of paint in this one. That's Mum's sister Frances on the end in this photo. Sadly, she died at seventeen. When I was born four years later, I was christened Frances Mary after her.

Here's a photo taken at the front of their house for a change so no pigeons to be seen.

The shy one is me, with my Mum, brother, Granny and Grandad. Note the hand knitted jumpers. Those ones would have been knitted by Mum but Granny was always knitting too. Mum swore that, when her Mum, Granny and Aunt were all living a few doors apart during the war, she went to sleep with her arms held out - just in case anyone needed to wind more wool during the night!

I spent a lot of time with my Granny as I grew up; she taught me how to cross stitch when I stayed with her for a week when I was about seven - big fabric and even bigger stitches but I was very proud of myself. I think my love of walking came from Granny too; we walked for miles and, in later years, started a tradition of the two of us going for a long walk (complete with ice cream) every Christmas Eve. 

Mostly though, I remember us sitting in the garden doing our knitting, crocheting together, sewing ... just lots of craft. You can see evidence of all this craft in lots of the photos of Granny. Here she is with my baby daughter ...

The ladybird jumper was my work but Granny's cardigan, the crochet chair back and the patchwork cushions were all Granny's. You can't see the rugs on the floor but she made those too and, obviously, she could turn her hand to dressmaking too. She liked to dabble in all sorts of crafts but knitting was her real love; when arthritis in her hands made it hard for her to knit bigger things, she concentrated on socks. The pattern I still use is a variation of her original, much battered one.  

One last photo. This one was taken in my back garden when we lived in Peckham. Four female generations of my family, Granny, Mum, me and my daughter.

I love this photo; you can see we were all having fun (apart from the baby who has no idea what's going on).  Happy memories.