Knitted blanket squares

are almost done - if I do just twelve. I have finished knitting eleven. Ten of them, properly "blocked", have been passed on. The eleventh needs to be blocked. ("Blocking" is the knitter's equivalent of pressing seams as you sew I suppose. Those of you who don't know about it can look it up - if you really want to know.)

The twelfth planned square is the one I have been putting off doing. It  is in a technique I am not fond of - "intarsia". Intarsia allows you to knit pictures into your knitting in two or more colours. It is fiddly but it can have stunning results. 

This square won't be stunning. As intarsia goes it will not be too difficult I suppose because there will only be two colours involved. The picture will be a plane - to represent the Royal Flying Doctor Service. 

I really want to put that one in. It is a very important part of the life of the "Outback". The RFDS was the world's first "air ambulance". It was founded by John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister. Flynn also founded the "Australian Inland Mission".  My paternal grandparents knew him well. The Senior Cat grew up knowing him too. When we, like most children at the time, were taught about "Flynn of the Inland" at school the Senior Cat taught us from his own experience of the complex and sometimes difficult man. 

The RFDS is still a vital part of life in the  most remote areas of Downunder. It is a service which has saved thousands of lives. I want to acknowledge it.

Searching for a possible design I knew I had seen a plane somewhere and I found it again. It is in a book called "The tap dancing lizard" by Catherine Cartwright-Jones and Roy Jones. The book is full of charts, mostly intended for machine knitting. I have knitted two of the charts, an heraldic lion and a cat on a penny-farthing bicycle. They were both more complex than the plane. Both of them took a very long time. I did them in between other things simply because of the concentration they required. 

I sent Catherine a message and, explaining why, asked permission to use the plane chart for the square. The response was an enthusiastic "yes" and of course I will acknowledge her in the pattern for the square. Today I will need to copy the plane into the pattern for the square. The computer program will give me written instructions as well. I hope that might make it easier for people to knit. 

It will be a challenge but nothing like the challenge the Reverend John Flynn faced in setting up the RFDS.  Years later we kittens were taken to visit Flynn's wife in a nursing home in Sydney. She told us, "Never give up on your dreams." I'll get that square done for both of them.