The Happy Hookers have put their planned blankets project for Bath Cats and Dogs Home to one side and substituted a couple of other community projects instead to keep them going over the next couple of months or so.
First up is this year's Worldwide Creative Project in readiness for September's Yarndale, which entails making triangular pennants to a specified size with the option of adding letters to make words associated with the event. We've opted to create enough pennants to spell out Skipton (Yarndale's location), Crochet and Friends*
This project is well under way with just the sewing on of the letters onto the pennants left to do. This will be a Flexi Club event at Rivo Lounge open to all Belles on August 13th.
* = Yarndale specifies Friend, but we've chosen to add the S as there are several of us taking part.
Our second project is the exciting woolly creation of scenes from 'The Longest Day' film as part of the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings next year. This has now been adopted as part of the official events in Carentan, France (close to the landings sites) and comprises 80 scenes from the film displayed on 1 metre x half metre rectangles - think postbox toppers with knobs on! Around 400 stitchers are taking part from several countries.
Each scene will also have a 'skirt' draped around it, comprising black squares decorated with flags of the countries involved in the D Day landings, plus regimental badges and various remembrance flowers - our own poppy plus daisies for the Netherlands and cornflowers for France. The Happy Hookers have committed themselves to create flags and flowers. Who knows, there may also be a field trip to help with the setting up next May!
The photo above shows the near completion of one of the scenes complete with skirt to give you an idea of what's involved. NB there's also an opportunity for our knitters to take part too - there are patterns available for both cornflowers and flags.
The patterns we're using for these projects include**:
Yarndale's Worldwide Creative Project details and patterns
'201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas' - this book includes the patterns for the alphabet letters we created
Starter for 10 crochet patterns for the D Day European country flags (some need modification to represent the actual country flag at the time of WW2 - see below). We will also need to improvise for the non-European ones! We're awaiting clarification of the appropriate flags for Rhodesia and South Africa. Michelle is watching over the project's busy Facebook Page for hints and tips, and further patterns. The individual patterns are (NB in US notation):
Czechoslovakia (confirmed as the same as today's Czech Republic)
Cornflower crochet pattern (plus daisy and poppy if needed)
The cornflower is the French remembrance flower, which seemed more appropriate to us seeing the project will be displayed in Carentan, France next year
If anyone would like to knit a cornflower, then Michelle can provide a copy from her '100 flowers to knit and crochet' book - this looks like the pattern used by the other knitters on the project
Guidance gleaned thus far for the D Day project**:
Flags are approx iPhone in size i.e. around 3 x 6 inches
Use dk yarn - a number of creators are starting with 30 chains (unless a pattern says differently), plus either a 4 or 5 hook to achieve the required size
The country flags needed are the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Rhodesia and South Africa
Around 100 flags per country have been requested, NB there are plenty of other makers!
Note that the following flags were different in WW2 (see image below):
Canadian (has the Union Jack + a shield),
USA (48 states not 50),
Polish (has an additional motif),
French (need to add the Cross of Lorraine as the current flag was used by the Axis in WW2)
Greek (simpler and with a crown)
Embroidery can and is being used for some of the trickier details on the flags e.g. stars for the USA flag and the shield for the old Canadian one
** = we'll add any further patterns/guidance we find to this post to keep everything in one place
The five country flags that were different during WWII
Top row: Greece, USA and Poland (ignore the arrow!)
Bottom row: Canada and France
Some guidance for the Canadian flag - the workaround is also a potential starting point for Australia and New Zealand
New Zealand Flag for guidance - could also form the basis for the Australian flag or be colour converted for the Canadian one