Happy 100th, Poetry Society

So it's not 'til Thursday, but the Poetry Society here in the UK will soon be 100. I had the lovely opportunity to help out with their major celebratory project - the giant knitted poem - in their offices last week. It is a HUGE project. All the letters (although not all the numbers) were finished and were being sewn together in lines first (9.5 metre long lines) and then sewn horizontally to connect all the lines into stanzas, and so on. I put in 6 hours one day and another 3 hours another day, but many others were working much longer hours to get this project done in time for the press to get snaps of it in time for National Poetry Day.

Here's a few pictures I took to illustrate just how huge a project this really is:

A lovely stitcher breaking her back to get the project done in time!

A ridiculously long (9.5 metre) line from the poem.

Just two of the many lines of the poem rolled up and ready to be sewn together into stanzas.

As far as I know, the first opportunity to see the finished poem will be at the British Library piazza on Wednesday - so fingers crossed it doesn't rain, right?

I will be far away in Bavaria, so won't be able to see it finished in person sadly. Leaving way too early tomorrow morning, but looking forward to the mountains, beer and yarn-hunting. Mmmmm....

Knit a Poem with The Poetry Society

Excellent! - we're in The Guardian, us knitters of letters for a giant poem. 800-ish knitters have agreed to take time out of their busy sock- sweater- shawl-knitting to contribute to the Poetry Society's Knit a Poem project, which will go on display in October. If you look closely at the mosaic on the linked page, you will see my green and purple knitted E. In case you don't have your specs on, here's a bigger version:

I have offered to help do the sewing-up, so I may just get a sneak peek at what the secret poem is...

In the meantime, I have to decide what my favourite poem is (they've asked us to send in our letters along with this bit of information). If you are inclined to read some knitting-related poetry, you can check out the Knitted Poems thread on the Knit a Poem group boards on Ravelry or check out the Knitting Poem of the Week on the Poetry Society's website.