3KCBWDAY3: Your Knitting or Crochet Hero

This blog post is part of the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week:

Introduction to the topic:

Your Knitting or Crochet Hero: Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger.(...)

Another perfect topic. In fact, this topic is so important to me that in the past I have already blogged about my personal Crochet Hero twice to introduce you to my Grandma and her crochet (Part 1 - Part 2)

Cushions

If you go back to those posts, you'll find lots of pictures of her work and just a little bit about my Grandma as a person. Today let's do it like this: I tell you more about my Grandma's (non-crochet) life and show you her work once again in mosaic-form.

Toys

My grandma was born as Maria Winkler in Neu Ullersdorf in 1912. The region where she was born is part of the Czech Republic, but at that time (long before the two World Wars) it had been inhabited mainly by Germans. In the early 1930s she married my grandfather, Franz Langer. Together they lived in Spornhau (Ostruzná) on a farm that had belonged to my grandfather's family, they even had their own stone quarry on their property. In Spornhau my grandparents had five children: one daughter and four sons, one of them was my father (*1944), he was the youngest one until then.

My grandparents with their seven children. My father is the one standing in the 2nd row right in the middle behind his parents

My grandfather Franz didn't fight in World War II, because he was one of the farmers who stayed behind to take care of the farms of the men who went to war. After the end of the war (1945), the German families in that area were expropriated and driven away from their homes, and my grandparents had to leave everything they couldn't carry behind. The legend goes that my grandfather buried their dishes and crystal glasses in the garden and the barn, hoping they might come back home one day. They never did.

The family came to Northern Bavaria and lived in an old school building in Thailenhofen for a few years. There they had two more children, another son and another daughter. My grandfather worked for a demolition squad that defused bombs and ammunition of the war. The job was well paid, so in 1955, my grandparents were able to build a new house in Ellingen, a small town not far from Thailenhofen. In their new home, my grandma had another girl, but the baby died the same day. Her name was Barbara and I was named after her. Maybe I've also inherited the crochet genes that would have been hers, who knows?

my Grandma at home in Ellingen

Home Decor

When I asked my father what hobbies (other than crochet) my grandma had, he said gardening and picking hops. I've learned that my grandma loved to work at the neighbours' farm - not for free, though: she got manure for her garden and a sack of potatoes in return ;)

my grandma and my father

Over the years, "the children" moved out and started their own families. My father met my mother and moved to k-town, where she was born and where we still live today. My aunt Traudi (I've blogged about her crochet before as well) stayed with her parents and still lives in the house in Ellingen.

Blankets

In 1983, my grandfather died. I can't remember much about him, because I was only four years old back then. My grandma Maria died in her sleep in 1994, one day before Christmas Eve.

my grandparents, the way I remember them

Now that was a lot of family talk, wasn't it? I've enjoyed this little detour today, even though I think I've missed the topic a little bit. For more crochet talk about "my crochet hero", please visit my earlier posts here and here.

If you'd like to meet more knitting and crochet heroes, start a google search with today's unique code: 3KCBWDAY3

Thanks for visiting k-town today,