Knits of the realm
Purly queen who created a woolly Buckingham Palace shares her crowning glory
Nothing could be more British than a right royal teas-up. It’s estimated 27 million kettles will be boiled as we tune in to watch King Charles III being crowned with Queen Consort Camilla at Westminster Abbey next week.
But as the 1,000-year-old pomp and pageant is expected to be several hours long, the Coronation cuppa will need to be kept warm.
We’re giving readers the chance to knit their own commemorative Coronation tea cosy – and as Blue Peter would say, we got royal knitter, Margaret Seaman, to make one earlier.
Margaret took a break from knitting Buckingham Palace to create a Wool Warehouse-designed cosy fit for a king.
“It comes up quite big – it’s perfect for a family-sized pot of tea,” she said, after completing the yarn retailer’s design.
The purly queen had a bit of advice.
Margaret says: “When sewing the white ermine fur to the base of the cosy, keep the stitching loose so that it fits easily over a spout and handle.”
She previously knitted 15 hours a day for two years on an 18ft woollen Sandringham, raising cash for Cambridge Children’s Hospital.
Now, having spent eight months knitting Buckingham Palace for 10 hours a day, it is almost done.
Margaret says: “I have four to six weeks’ knitting left to extend the road out to the mall from the gates and knit the white marble Queen Victoria memorial roundabout.”
The Winged Victory, Queen Victoria and other marble statues on it represent courage, constancy, victory, truth and motherhood.
A fitting way for the great-great gran from Caister-on-Sea in
Norfolk to finish her patriotic project. Born in 1929, Margaret is the last of her six siblings but has been blessed with a large family.
Margaret, who turns 94 this month, fundraises for the NHS which cared for her husband Fred, who passed away, aged 84, from prostate cancer in 2013. She says: “You get better at dealing with grief but it never gets easier.”
Joining a knitting club helped her and she came to fame displaying her work at the Norfolk Makers Festival in Norwich.
Jayne Evans, festival producer, says: “We are incredibly proud of Margaret. Her knitting has helped countless people, not just through the money she has raised but through the joy she has brought to people who meet her. She is living proof you are never too old to reach for the stars and that knitting is a special kind of magic.”
Freestyle knitter Margaret is as much an architect as she is a craftswoman. “It’s more than knitting,” she says. “It’s like building a house and making the right shape bricks.”
Having been awarded a British Empire Medal, Margaret met the late Queen and Princess Anne. Now she has had a very special royal invitation.
Excited, she says: “I’ve been invited to the garden party at Buckingham Palace on May 3 to meet the King and Queen Camilla.”
Margaret, who was 24 at the last Coronation, has wise words for Charles. She says, “Our future King has got a lot to live up to, and he’s been a bit quiet of late… but it’s a big change for him. I think he’s going to do very well.”
It’s more than knitting. It’s like building a house
MARGARET SEAMAN ON HER FREESTYLE PROJECTS