POETRY NEWS.

By last Friday tea time, Louise and I had almost stitched the first 6 lines together. Our morale had improved after managing to Invade an Invasion in the Poetry Soc. Cafe basement.

Our friend, Judith Dean, who took this picture, is invading the Poetry Society with a strategy and manner similar to that of the Romans. The invasion seems to be formulating a brilliant show, but for the time being we were proud to have taken up all her space for the afternoon, and let our battle commence with the huge task ahead. Keep an ear out for movement of Judith. She might 'build Rome in a day' again.
The moving thing about the knitted poem is that stories are told with every square, all injected with love, of immense importance, and each story will merge with all the other extraordinary squares and oblongs. It would be impossible to show each one.

ROSEMARY'S MITTENS.

High five to Rosemary who has just completed a wonderful pair of alpaca mittens, with braid stitch edge, two colour rib cuff and her own patterning on the hands. They are so cosy, she's praying for bad weather, and managing to make it come true. Well done Rosemary!

ANNA'S BOATER.

Anna has made this beautiful ladies' boater hat, from our hand dyed wool/ silk. The wool/silk is a solid yarn and keeps it's shape come wind or rain. Anna fixed it to her head with a hat pin, but a sock needle or crochet hook could work just as well.

Downloadable pattern coming soon!

THE LINES ARE STITCHED TOGETHER NOW.

Thank you to everyone who came and stitched the poem with us! This is Rebecka, she got the whole thing rolling by administrating the knitting of the letters. That was a HUGE job....

It took between 2.5 and 4 hours to stitch two lines together, so with 23 lines, you can calculate the numbers of fingers we needed to help. Fingers came from every where, including some which were on holiday from Australia.

Deportment was important. We stopped for stretches as much as we stopped for tea.

There was nothing boring about this job. Every square came with a message and we felt that we were surrounded by hundred's of friends and comrades. Even the man on the radio gave us a shout out.

The poem was bigger than the Poetry Soc building, so we couldn't roll it out to read it. There was only one mistake, no gap between 'the' and 'moon', but Brigit managed to un pick that area and insert a blank. Phew!

I didn't speak to Louise for hours. She was fully absorbed and occasionally lifted her head to encourage everyone.

We got a lot of stitching out of Ellen, because she was meant to be writing an essay, and wasn't ready to start. I reckon her essay came together through the stitching of this poem.

Next instalment of the poem to follow shortly.

STITCHING UP THE KNITTED POEM.

If any of you are free tomorrow (Friday) Louise and I will be at the Poetry Society from 10.30am - 9pm, stitching lines of the Knitted Poem together and would love your company. We are really enjoying it, not only because of it's scale and beauty, but because everyone has written their names and favourite poems on the back of each piece.

GUITAR SOLO.

Uncle Kim has Rocked and Rolled all over the world, and he agreed he'd never heard a guitar solo quite like the one Louise played at closing time last night.

ZARA'S FIRST SPINNING.

We lost Zara to the spinning wheel this afternoon! It was a good first day's work, and we know as the weeks pass her yarn will get more and more relaxed.

Zara was taught by Uncle Kim, pictured here. Kim is a good pirate who lives in the West Indies and grows coco. He comes to visit a few times a year, gets drunk and tells amazing stories.

Kim taught me to spin too. He says you have to let the wool do it's own thing.

For a really good adventure, you can go and stay in his converted chicken shack with en-suite everything. I can put you in touch. He's got a toe missing where a shark got him but he can still build houses and catch your dinner.

Kim tells it as it is , sings the blues, and isn't really my Uncle but he likes it when I call him that.