Great Grandma's crochet

Florence Olive Moore nee Holt was my Great Grandma and she was born in Aston, Warwickshire in 1879.  She immigrated to Australia in about 1911 and lived in Melbourne with her brother for a year or so before marrying my Great Grandfather Thomas Moore in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1913.  

Tom and Olive on their wedding day.

Before coming to Australia, Florence or as she like to be called Olive, worked as a domestic servant, a cook and a parlour maid.  The English Census records make for fascinating reading.  Life in Australia after she was married was very challenging for her and the Western Australian countryside with it's flies, heat, dry and harsh climate vastly different to that of her country of birth.

Here she is a photo of her with my Grandma in her arms.

Those whites look very white to me which would have been no mean feat to keep clean with all the dust and dirt around.

Great Grandma was a keen crocheter and from what I've seen, she mainly concentrated on fine crochet work, edging doilies and the like.  My Mum lived with Tom and Olive during the 2nd World War together with her Mother and Sister while my Grandfather was away overseas in New Guinea.  After the morning chores were done and lunch over, Olive would settle  down to spend some time crocheting.  

Years later when Olive found out that her Grandaughter (my Mum) was pregnant with her first child, she crocheted some little fine booties.  I can only imagine the blue touch was added after she found out the baby was a boy.

 

You can see the detail of the button hole in the bottom of the photo.  The booties were closed with a little pearl button but has since been lost from this booty.  The pair to this booty has been lost over time too.

The underside of the booty.

A little piece of fabric was sewn in the inside of the booty so the baby's toes wouldn't get caught in the fine work of the crochet.

You may have noticed the very interesting object I photographed the booty on.  It's one of Olive's shoe trees which she brought with her when she came out from England all those years ago.  I thought it was a lovely piece to use as a backdrop to her crochet work.

 

Here is a photo of Olive in her older age.

Mum tells stories how Olive would fall asleep and have a little doze while she was crocheting.  She would wake up and continue crocheting intricate lace work without missing a stitch.  My Grandfather or my Great Grandfather would tease her that she had been asleep which she hotly denied.

I'd loved to have known this amazing lady but unfortunately she died before I was born.  I feel privileged to have some of her work and personal items.  I have more of her crochet work to show you but I'll save that for another post.

Anne  xx