Knitting and a Tribute to Tracy

2023 was a fairly prolific year for knitting.  Mr B got three new jumpers; 2 of those in 4ply (which for non-knitters means skinny wool and lots of stitches).  I finished a jacket for myself, and knitted a couple of cardigans for a grand-niece and there have been several dozens of hats, many of which have been posted here in batches as the year progressed.  

The latest batch were made to use up some yarn inherited on the sudden death of a colleague - Tracy A.

Tracy (and I think even she would have admitted this) had health status that was a ticking time bomb.  On appearance she might be judged unfairly and I was guilty of that when I met her years ago.  Overweight and with heavily bandaged legs that leaked from ulceration that simply would not heal, Tracy struggled to walk and managed only short distances - breathlessly.  However Tracy was one of the most creative and prolific people I know when it came to knitting and sewing.  She produced prodigious amounts of beautifully crafted things that she sold to raise thousands of pounds for charities that we support through our work place.  She had a wonderful eye for colour and detail, close attention to finished standard, wicked humour, huge willingness to share, and generosity to the end.  

Tracy took up the baton of our charity fundraiser craft sales which a group us started a decade ago as a response to the 'sponsor us' mountaineering types who always managed to get themselves a day off every year to go on an adventure.  Truly, I am one of rufty tufty adventuring lot, but I also acknowledged that there was a cohort of our colleagues who regularly sponsored and got none of the glory - and no day off.  They could bake cakes for Jamaica, make jam and marmalade for England, carve wooden spoons, sew clothes, bags, patchwork quilts, Christmas stockings and table mats, knit scarves and hats, make cards and Christmas decorations and bath bombs and bath salts, and screen print and weave and build dolls houses and  .... and when we started appealing to them to help create a charity fund raiser, they responded in droves. No one ever dreamed of so much creativity in a relatively small work place.  (And the funds raised by their sales put the adventurers well and truly in the shade.) Tracy was an absolute stalwart, and continued to run 2 sales a year, mainly on her own output, even long after most of the 'old school' bakers and makers had retired.

She took on a bet of some kind with a couple of our (male) underwriters and accountants a year or three back in which, if she won (or they lost - take your pick), they had to learn to knit.  Her win resulted in the start of a knitting club at work.  She did the teaching, and while the original agents of the bet turned out to be rather poor losers, sticking to their knitting for only a couple of lessons, there were others (most notably a son of a senior accountant bet loser) who discovered a passion in knitting to the extent that he could be found occupying his commute time by knitting; to and from work by public transport (much to his father's embarrassment).

Is it unusual for an big city insurance business to have on its payroll 2 or more generations of the same family?  I can think of at least 4 families here that have multigenerational representation - in quite different roles (Accountant/IT, Receptionist/Underwriting, Personal Injury claims/IT, Underwriting/Publications).

After Tracy died one of the redundant filing cabinets at work was opened to the discovery that the space freed by the 'paperless office' had been filled instead with craft materials and unsold stock. The now redundant knitting club yarn was delivered to me.  I redistributed a large portion of it, in pastel colours, to one of the secretaries who knits hats for the premature baby unit at a nearby hospital.  The bolder yarn - as you see above - has been modelled into adult hats and although looking like theatre costumes for the elves in Santa's workshop, will be making their way (via work) either to a charity supporting homeless people in central London, or to one of the seafarers outreach missions who keep a good stock handy in ports around UK for the winter time distribution to seafarers unaccustomed to winter cold at these latitudes.  

Tracy's legacy lives on.  She was an inspiration and I am grateful for all that she made me review about forming opinions of people just for the way they look.