Week 35 - Pamela

Maternal. Quiet. Reclusive. Happy.

Safe at Home by Margaret Holtzman made by Pamela during lockdown

I walk to the Hide and Seek Cafe in North Lyneham to meet Pamela.  The day is cool with a little sun.  There is a feeling of Spring in the air and in the gardens.  Wattle is about to bloom, daffodils and Jonquils are waiting for more signs of sun.  We are moving into the Yellow time of year.  To break up this colour I spy some violets, or Johnny Jumps Ups, a Canadian friend calls them, in a garden bed otherwise filled with Ivy.

The Hide and Seek Cafe is within walking distance for both Pamela and myself. Once settled with drinks Pamela tells me about the thing she is working on; sewing up knitted squares made by others for Roundabout.  Roundabout is a charity that provides practical assistance to families who may need it; clothes, baby seats for cars, hand made blankets for all ages, books for school, bedding.  Many of the Facebook Knitters and Crocheters assist by making items or sewing up made squares.  Pamela tells me she used to do this for Wrapped with Love, but prefers to do something for local people now.  She also knits beanies for babies in the NICU at Canberra Hospital. She finds it ‘heart warming’ to think of the blankets and beanies she has made over the years and the way they are being used by the families they end up with; Mum and kids sitting under a blanket watching TV in the evenings.  She likes to knit with wool because of the tactile nature of the yarn.  She loves sheep and how different they can be.  On a coach tour of the UK she was amazed to find that sheep there are white. Watching the few day old lambs prance around the fields is an enduring memory. No knitting on hand today, Pamela’s hand demonstrate the prancing of the lambs by gesturing.  

Pamela at home with her work and her dog

Pamela is a woman who is happy in her own space and comfortable with her own company.  She was excited about COVID lockdown because the obligation to do anything else was taken away.  It gave her more time to do the things she loves and most of those are crafting.  During this time she made the Safe at Home by Margaret Holzman.  She thinks this is the best thing she has ever made and she learned so much from doing it.  

Pamela learnt how to knit in the Third Grade, at school.  She was the only girl in her class who did not knit, so the teacher showed her.  She did not always live with her mother, who had little time as she had to work.  Pamela laments that there was no social security then so her mother had no choice, ‘Today she would have been looked after better’. 

To learn new skills for her newly acquired craft Pamela made clothes for doll’s from the English Women’s Weekly.  She also used sewing patterns from this magazine.  These skills came in handy when she had her eight children.  She has many Mon Tricot patterns from her grandmother that are still in use. Pamela makes more modern garments for both her children and grandchildren.  She shows me a photo on her tablet of a daughter and granddaughter wearing the same top in different colours.  A tee shirt, short sleeves, with an intricate pattern up the right hand side.  She is proud.

She taught her children, girls and boys, how to knit but it is only the two oldest females who carried on doing it. “they are skilled crafters”.  

Pamela also crochets, she taught herself using the Arthur Mee's Children’s Encyclopedia, explaining that she still holds the hook in a way that is not usual, but it works.  But knitting is her real love.  Pamela admits to knitting everywhere, always has something on the go, ‘I got sprung knitting at a set of red lights once.’ she says not telling me what the consequence was.

Pamela is a keen user of new technology.  She found the Facebook group when browsing and it has been ‘such a good connection’.  ‘I know Facebook causes a lot of damage but it is good too’.  She loves to see the works of others, it gives her an excitement about new things and possibility.  Facebook groups, all to do with knitting, also gives her a connection to an outside world.  Pamela is happy about being reclusive but likes to have some feeling about what is going on around her.  The work that is produced by, mainly women, and displayed on Facebook, is something for her to feel pride in.  Handmade things are often overlooked and not considered as an important enterprise, but Pamela recognises the skill, time and creativity that goes into each and every garment and feels proud of the women who make them.  She sees us.  

Pamela and her family at a birthday celebration

Pamela is not sentimental about stuff, she gives away most of what she makes either to family and friends or to charities.  ‘Things should not sit in cupboards.  They should be used’. The making of the item is the thing that gives her satisfaction.  Small things like baby booties, jumpers and mittens evoke maternal feelings. She tells me her treasured possessions are her memories, especially of her children.  She is not a ‘joiner’ she has tried the face to face groups and not been back, she has tried different churches but not felt welcomed, except at one.  

Pamela has finished her coffee, I my tea.  As we finish up she tells me about listening to Anna Funder on the radio talking about her book “Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life” about George Orwell and his wife Eileen Blair. ‘It was all her, not him, she did it all’ Pamela says referring to Eileen’s work to make George look good and assisting his every need to allow him time to do what he wanted, the subject of the book.

It is time to move on, back into the cold wind with the promise of Spring. It will not be long until we are all complaining about the heat.