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What did you do in the war Grandad?

I entered a competition on my friend knittingtastic's blog a few weeks ago. She posed the question:

Tell me your favourite knitting figure from history and why they top your list. 

I didn't win but think what I wrote about is worth sharing here:

My OH’s grandfather was by all accounts was a thoughtfully lovely chap. He was stationed in the Falklands during WWII as the islands doctor. Luckily for him life there was relatively quiet so he picked up his knitting needles and knit his wife a dress. 

I’d love to ask him which yarn he used, was it from local sheep, did he bother with tension swatches, you know, all those knitterly questions. I remember my OH’s gran recalling with fondness the dress he’d made, which he gave to her as a gift when he returned home at the end of the war. 

Apparently it was a very good fit and well made, which I am a little bit in awe of as they were half the world away from each other and he didn’t use a pattern. 

I trot out this story when people make inane comments about knitting being just for women.

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