“The most formidable knitter of her generation,” was the accolade attributed to my great aunt Beatrice in her obituary in “Active Knitter”. At the age of 15 she had already knitted a scarf of over two miles in length and her output continued to be prodigious throughout her life. Perhaps her most notable achievement occurred at the regional County Fair of 1932 when she was challenged to knit a bedsock in the time it took a professional hand-shearer to de-fleece three sheep. She won, and the sock she created still hangs in Shire Hall as a testimony to the speed, accuracy and consistent tension of her knitting.
Always a feisty woman, she once kicked an embroiderer in the face for suggesting that decorative motifs in knitted wool lack the sharp-lined clarity of woven picot. In later life she was afflicted by the arthritic curse of knitters knuckle and had to abandon her needles. She took up building Lego pirate ships as an alternative pursuit but her heart wasn’t in it and she declined rapidly to her death in 1989.
