School Needlework

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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jhopgood
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Re: School Needlework

Post by jhopgood »

Fjgrogan wrote: Among the contents ....... a large flat needle with a curved end. Does anyone have a clue what that miight be for?
I bought a packet of needles for leather work and one is a curved flat needle.

I used a latch hook for rug making.
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Katharine »

midget wrote:Re the curved needle, it sounds like a Mattress needle, used in heavy non-bendable work. A smaller version is used to assemble an embroidered box, without which noone should call herself an embroiderer.
I wondered that maggie, but as I read the description it sounded as if just the end was curved. The needles I use for box making are almost semicircular.
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Angela Woodford
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

I know that clever knitters will sigh and go :roll: :roll: :roll: but I am just so excited.

I have finished my learning-knitting-basics sampler in ice-cream colours. The one that was hidden behind the slug pellets in the garage for two and a half years? Smothered in the dust of guilt and cobwebs of procrastination?

Resuscitated! Finished! Thanks to the patient advice and skill of the ladies of the Cove Knitting and Spinning Group, it has fringing worked at each end and is about to be posted to my middle daughter as a scarf. I found one of her school Cash's Name Tapes and stitched it on for some added nostalgia.

I keep looking at it and marvelling at its wonderfulness. I knitted something!

I just feel I must do a little label

Angela Marsh
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(for my daughter that I don't know I'm going to have yet)

with the little crosses in each corner. Hoping to get Commended! :wink: Oh Happy Day!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: School Needlework

Post by anniexf »

Oh WELL DONE, Angela! Welcome to the Unofficial Forum's Unofficial Knitting Circle! There'll be no stopping you now .... :D :D :D
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Re: School Needlework

Post by englishangel »

Oh Angela sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry at some of your wonderful prose. Either way it brings tears to my eyes.
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Re: School Needlework

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Angela Woodford wrote:
I have finished my learning-knitting-basics sampler in ice-cream colours. The one that was hidden behind the slug pellets in the garage for two and a half years? Smothered in the dust of guilt and cobwebs of procrastination?

Resuscitated! Finished! Thanks to the patient advice and skill of the ladies of the Cove Knitting and Spinning Group, it has fringing worked at each end and is about to be posted to my middle daughter as a scarf.

I keep looking at it and marvelling at its wonderfulness. I knitted something!
Angela, you should put all this in a letter to one of the many knitting monthlies - I'm sure you'd get a "Star Letter" prize and/or some knitting goodies, and it would spread the word about the Cove K. & S.G. Go for it!!! :D
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Fjgrogan »

Actually the bit of Cove K&S group that interested me was the S bit. When I was in training college (the first time) one of my main subjects was Craft (Textiles). Mostly it was weaving, but we also did some spinning and dyeing. Many many years later I bought a foot loom which languishes in the shed, waiting until I can declutter enough to make space to set it up. I was reinspired by the recent Mastercrafts -or was it Masterclass? - series on TV with Monty Don. Weaving will take a while to organise, but handspinning would be a practical proposition in the meantime!! (Maria will now be killing herself with laughter! I have been saying it for so long). I might even eventually invest in a spinning wheel - shades of the Good Life! [Whoops! the first time round I typed 'sinning' wheel!]
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

The ladies of the group who spin were comparing the prices of their spinning wheels. One lady had just paid £360 for her wheel! They make the most amazingly soothing hum and whirr in action.

I'm amazed at how the wheels can pack down into a guitar-ish size case for transportation!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: School Needlework

Post by midget »

Do stick with the "sinning" Frances!
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Fjgrogan »

'Sinning' would certainly be cheaper! So would using a hand spindle rather than a wheel. I once knew a nun who said that when she was dying she would like someone to sit in her room with a spinning wheel because the sound was so soothing.
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Re: School Needlework

Post by midget »

Knitting is definitely on the increase, if only blanket squares. Today someone donated 2 bin bags full of acrylic DK, NEW. At 50p per 150gm ball we sold the lot by about 2pm, and the Hospice was about £30-40 better off.
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

Well done Maggie! That's brilliant!

I met the most delightful woman in the shop of Coldharbour Mill, Uffcolme, traditional mill that spins own wool from all sorts of sheep - yes, I was hunting for wool for my next creation! She said (with a shudder) that she could never, never wear brown again, as it had been her School Uniform. I admitted that it was some time after leaving School before I had worn navy blue again. Funny how colours bring back memories - I recently saw somewhere the yellow of the Wardrobe Room dust sheets - which I believe had once been cubicle curtains in Upper Dorm. Horrible colour!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: School Needlework

Post by Fjgrogan »

Remarkably like the boys socks really! My daughters wore purple for school uniform in primary school, but it didn't seem to put them off - in later years purple clothes became something of a 'trademark' for all three of us. So much so that both girls had purple for their bridesmaids and at Kirri's wedding the minister preaching the sermon somehow managed to make his points with the initial letter spelling out the word 'purple'. We had dire warnings from the photographer that purple might show up as black in the photos - there were even purple celtic motifs on the cake, which came out fine in the photos. So school uniform colour certainly didn't put off either of them. And before anyone else thinks of it - yes, I am familiar with the poem 'When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple' - I even have a cross stitch kit for it which I shall get around to doing some time!
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

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Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

For me. for a long time. navy meant the dreary saturated hue of the school mac - the all-purpose games or lessons tunic - the unflatteringly dull V1 Form skirt - the exhausted scarcely-navy shade of the sixth-hand blazer.

The Great Plum - much as I am thrilled and grateful for my modern CH scarf as knitted by your dear mamma - the navy is too light and the yellow not mustardy enough! It must be very difficult finding just the right colours in modern yarns.
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: The World's Squarest Teenagers

Post by Angela Woodford »

Last Sunday I chanced upon a Channel 4 production - missed the very beginning - but it seemed to feature a group of Amish teenagers spending some time at the two splendid homes of an English upper-class family.

I was very struck by an arranged activity, which was meant to contrast the abilities of the teen girls, in which the Amish teen very competently took up the hem of a ball dress worn by the English teen! The astonishment as she pinned up the hem and sewed it beautifully! The gasp, as she revealed "Since I was fifteen, I haven't worn a dress I haven't made myself"!

I felt a bit uncomfortable as this charming Amish girl knelt at the feet of the spoiled English one, meekly pinning up the hem as if nothing could give her more pleasure. The dress was a strapless number which I feared just might descend at any moment.

Obviously, Stowe school doesn't have a SWMNBN. The old dragon may have been nightmarish, but I'm pleased that I did learn how to sew, although not to brilliant standards! :roll:

The Amish dress reminded me a great deal of the Susannah portrait. English girl tried on Amish dress and looked very much prettier in it. The little bonnet really suited her.

Hertford CH Girls - possibly the squarest teenagers of our time? But we could sew!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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