Knitters Making Poppies for War Anniversary

Knitters in Australia and beyond are being called upon to create knit poppies that will be used to decorate the Australian War Memorial to mark the centenary of the ending of World War I next November.

The group 5,000 Poppies, which has been around for four years and has collected knit and crocheted poppies for various events, is making a big push in 2018 for two different projects. The first is to produce 50,000 lapel poppies by April 2018 for the Victorian RSL for their 2018 Poppy Appeal. A post on the group’s Facebook page said they had 20,000 already finished.

The second project is to plant poppies at the war memorial to represent each Australian who died in World War I. That’s about 62,000, and they have 18,000 to 20,000 finished (as of February). The poppies for this project are due by August of next year and can be mailed to the war memorial or to 5,000 Poppies directly (see the link above for addresses).

They have patterns that can be used to make the poppies, and they need to be worked tightly so they will look good in a lapel or on display, and the poppies for the war memorial need to be able to withstand the elements because they will be on display outdoors for five weeks. I also have a collection of knit poppy patterns that would be great for this purpose.

This is a lovely project and a great way to use some red yarn from your stash in the cause of remembrance and peace.

If you send any poppies, I would love to hear about it!

[Photo: 5,000 Poppies.]

Looking for more knitting patterns for Poppies? Check these out on Etsy.

Next Pattern:

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?