Knitted Groto

Last weekend, Westpoint in Exeter held the Creative Stitches fair. It's a fabulous place to get your craft supplies. The Craft Hub had a great stand which showcased all the members work and they also had a scarf knitathon - they invited everyone that came to the stall to knit a row or 2 to what should be a very interesting and eclectic piece. They twisted my arm into doing one row even though I barely know how to knit. I am waiting to see the finished piece on their blog!

Personally I find these fairs a tad uninspiring and dare I say it a little twee, but I came across a little gem (actually it was a rather large gem) around the corner. It was a knitted grotto called 'Above and Below the Waves'. Undertaken by Alison Murray the project was made possible by knitted donations of 2000 knitters around the world. The project tours the UK raising money for the RNLI "Train one, save many' campaign. It took 2 years for all the knitted elements to come together and a further 5 months for the pieces to be sewn together into an amazing, very detailed beach and under water scene. Every where you looked you saw something different and quirky details. I don't know much about knitting but loved the way different stitches / techniques were used to create different textures like the jelly fish and the sea sponges. Anyway, that enough of my rambling - below are a selection of photos I took. The very last photo is a key ring I couldn't resist buying from their stand.