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Busy knitters Helen Parkes and Richard Calder at the Click Clack Club.
It’s a start – only 2km to go …
Hillary Austin Calder modelling the inspiration for Snugleigh.
A giant 2.5km woollen scarf will be the centrepiece of a new midwinter community event being planned for Leigh by the Foundation Art Gallery & Arts Hub – but founder Hillary Austin Calder needs a lot of knitters to make it happen.
The idea of Snugleigh, as the event has been dubbed, is to make and wrap an extra-long scarf around the triangle of land bordered by Seatoun Avenue, Cumberland Street and Hauraki Road, past the fire station, preschool, community hall, playing fields and primary school.
However, it’s going to take a heck of a lot of wool, so Hillary is appealing for knitters to join in the challenge of making the thousands of separate sections that will be required. She has started the Click Clack Club at Foundation every Wednesday evening from 7pm to 9pm for social knitters, and contributions from home knitters are also welcome.
She says there are no rules, except for the width of each section.
“We’re all using different sized needles and stitches, they just have to be 15cm wide and preferably wool,” she says. “They can be any length, any colour, any style.”
The scarf will be displayed on the evening of Friday, June 18 and craftspeople and community groups are being invited to put up stalls and activities around the site to raise funds for local emergency services and schools.
The idea for Snugleigh arose when Hillary’s daughter taught herself knitting and sent her an oversized scarf.
“It was a travesty, really, but very warm,” she says. “I thought about Covid and the community hanging together no matter what, so I thought let’s see if we can pull off an event as an expression of community solidarity.”
Once the scarf has been knitted and wrapped around Leigh, Hillary is thinking of using it to decorate telegraph poles in the town, or make the pieces into blankets.
Snugleigh will coincide with the official opening of a new LoveLeigh community mural, which her young Barefoot Artists students will start next term, as well as a new exhibition at the gallery.
