Barbara Harpur first learned to knit as a kindergarten student in Northern Ireland and has been knitting ever since. Folks in Conception Bay South may remember purchasing wool from Harpur at her shop Harpur’s Knitting Centre, which she operated in CBS from 1987 until 1994, when she moved the shop to Duckworth Street in St. Johns. During the cod moratorium, Harpur trained other women to knit. More recently in 2000, Canadian Living magazine asked Harpur to design and knit a sweater in honor of the 1,000 year anniversary of the arrival of the Vikings at L’Anse aux Meadows. In 2022, Lisa Chatzikirou of Cast On! Cast Off! began working with Harpur to bring that pattern back to life. Following a successful redesign of the sweater, Harpur and Chatzikirou designed a pattern for a children’s version of the sweater. Harpur also designed a children’s hat to compliment the sweater. Both designs have been compiled in a new pattern book, ‘Children’s Newfoundland Guernsey.’ While designing the sweater and hat, Harpur sought out several ‘mini-models’ many of whom hail from the junior church classes at First Baptist Church in Mount Pearl, which Harpur attends. Those children also appear in the pattern book. In the back row, from left to right, are Willow Martin and her father Mitchell Martin, Barbara Harpur and Adrian Sierra de Anda (himself a model in the pattern book). In front, from left to right, are Nathan and Andrea Ohwoka, Daniel Chinaka, who had some fun clowning for the camera, and Mateo and Samuel de Anda.
