Extreme Knitting Redhead: One down and more to come

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

One down and more to come

Crochet chair-back

It's finished and I'm rather pleased with it too.

First I went all around the outer edge with the green slate, incorporating alternate red and turquoise beads every other stitch - I didn't like some of the pieces that had beads on every stitch as I felt it looked a bit too heavy.

For the top, I used rows of dc and trebles to make a flap to tuck over the top of the chair to hold it in place.

For the lower edge, I'd planned to use one or another fancy edgings from Nicky Epstein's book but each version I tried looked too fussy. I did some careful calculations to make sure I had the right number of stitches and started off with a really elaborate, dangly one which looked OK but I felt it distracted the eye from the main pattern which is not what I wanted. The next one I tried was much smaller but it was still hogging the limelight. Of course I was too eager to rip them back so forgot to take photos to illustrate my point!

Then finally I realised that less is more and just did a very simple pattern I devised without reference to a pattern - (dc, half dc, treble, half dc, dc) into one stitch, miss 1 stitch then 1dc into next 2 stitches. It gave a nice simple pointy edge which doesn't interfere with the main body of the crochet and gives it a nice balanced look.

So here it is, blocked and in situ. I'm waiting to see if it will droop at all as it's cotton and the central motif is quite gappy. If it does then I'll mount it on some linen cloth.

The next thing I'm going to make using my crochet club patterns will be a mat for the top of the grand piano but in the meantime I'll be finishing off my latest knitting project (the Louisa Harding top).

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.