The first wonder

1. When I started at junior school my teacher was a lovely lady called Mrs Boam. One afternoon she gave everyone in the class a ball of string and two long, pointed pieces of wood, which she told us were called knitting needles. She showed us how by moving the wool around and through the needles we changed the ball of string into something totally different. Each Wednesday afternoon we would take out our string and needles and knit. I found this wonderful and within a few sessions I had a  - wait for it - dishcloth! I took it home to my mother but she didn't seem to appreciate its magic though i imagine she used it. The next week teacher gave me some slimmer, metal needles and 2 balls of soft wool. One ball was dark blue the other yellow as these were our school colours. I was very proud as I was the first in the class to be given these precious items. The dishcloth only need ed garter stitch but now I was introduced to double rib, purl and stocking stitch. Not only that but I was taught to shape my work by increasing and decreasing the number of stiches on my needle. After a time I was also shown how to sew up my work and I was delighted to wear the finished work - a pair of mittens with seperate thumbs. I wore them whenever it was cold until they wore out. When i finished the mittens I was asked by the teacher if i would like to knit a dress for my doll. Would I??? i brought the doll into school as requested and by the summer she had a pale green dress with holes around the waist where I threaded a ribbon as a sash. It had a round neck, puff sleeves and a garter stich hem. I also knitted a pair of knickers to match with elastic threaded through. I kept the doll and her outfil until my 30's when she got lost in a house move I think.

Thanks to Mrs Boam I have a skill which still gives me a lot of pleasure.