Introducing: The Natty Knitters of Griffith!

Here it is – more information about the intriguing Natty Knitters of Griffith! My interest came from hearing a news report on national radio about a group in Griffith, NSW which had received a government grant to create a full-size knitted garden. It seemed incredible, and I wanted to know more! By some sleuthing I managed to get in contact with Liz Brooks who is the organiser of the Natty Knitters. Here’s what she had to tell me about the whole knitted garden project.

Tell us about how “the Natty Knitters of Griffith” came to be.
We came together as a group last June 20 when I approached library staff and asked if they would host ‘World Wide Knit in Public Day’. They were delighted, as they felt it would be a good lead in to the ABC Radio Knit-In for ‘Wrap With Love’ blankets in July, which they’ve been hosting each year for a few years. We had over 40 people attend WWKIPD, and have continued to meet every Saturday 10-4.

How did the idea for the knitted garden come about?
After we’d made nearly 30 blankets, I told the group I had an idea… To my surprise and complete delight, they wanted to run with The Knitted Garden.

We entered a vase of knitted daffodils/narcissi, into ‘Flower Power’ last October. ‘Flower Power’ is a relatively new annual exhibition held in Griffith City art gallery to coincide with the Garden Festival and Orange Sculptures in October each year. Staff were amazed at the enthusiastic response they received from local artists and crafters across all media, with many entries – all on the theme of flowers/gardens, of course. We had such an amazing response to the vase; from that things have continued to grow. The vase of flowers is now on permanent display in the library [where we meet], creating even more interest.

I’d had the idea [for the garden] as soon as the first ‘Flower Power’ occurred, and it took me a couple of years to get my head around it, although I mentioned it to gallery staff straight away, and they were immediately encouraging. However, it took a lot of thought and planning. I also collected many patterns and much information.

After The Natty Knitters were formed and agreed to help, I came up with a reasonable plan that everyone thought would work and drew it to scale to fit the smaller room of the Art Gallery. This scale drawing became vital for working out quantities of yarn. We began to knit/crochet straight away, as I thought it important that we have test pieces to help with statistics. It was a jolly good job we did, as I believe this all helped enormously with the grant submission. We could show how well-planned and organised we were as a group and could quantify what we needed the money for.

How have the Natty Knitters grown?
We now have over 50 people knitting/crocheting, with a hard core of repeat workers. In total, including the knitters, there are almost 100 people who have supported us in some way already, whether it be donations of yarn/patterns/needles, help from council employees, suppliers of food & beverages, family support/encouragement etc.

We also have the support of the most powerful group in Australia – two local branches of the Country Womens Association! I was invited to give a talk to the local women’s Probus group, amongst whom were members of both CWA groups. Some of their members, well into their 80’s and 90’s, are enthusiastically knitting. The project seems to have re-invigorated many.

Why did you apply for the government grant?
I realised we would need more funds than just our own stash/pockets could supply, although we’ve also received massive amounts of yarn donations, but we needed money for things like support structures to be built. So, I wrote the submission for a Regional Arts NSW Country Arts Support Programme (CASP) Grant, which you now know we were successful in receiving.

What have been some of the highlights so far?
I’m humbled but entirely delighted by something else that is happening, almost but not wholly unintended, certainly not on my part. We all know and read more and more about the therapeutic benefits of knitting/crochet/handcrafts to those who have to overcome obstacles of any kind. I’ve collected several articles along these lines (I take items of interest along to the library each week, to stop the women from going mad!) and there are ever-increasing authorities that want to quantify what we crafters have always known. Grrr, why don’t they more often ask women what they know?

We are overcoming social isolation amongst many of these women, for whatever their personal reason. We are also crossing cultural boundaries and language barriers. We emphasised all this heavily in our grant submission. As a group, we are non-threatening, have no formal structure or rules, ask only what people feel they can do, refuse nothing, and are always pleased with everything we receive. We will use it all! More importantly, we have a good laugh! We also get free tea/coffee each Saturday, I bring the biscuits!

Even more fabulous is the fact that we’ve so far taught dozens of people to knit or crochet, another of my intentions. We’ve taught boys as well as girls. One of our most prolific knitters is a wonderful young/older Italian gentleman, who has knitted all the grass we needed for this first phase of The Garden. He and his wife come along together. When he’s not knitting, he’s also making jewellery, in his retirement.

We hope that the Men’s Shed will become involved too, helping with the support structures we need. I’d already enlisted their help making me a huge pair of extreme knitting needles for WWKIPD, which were a great hit. We made a floor rug for the kid’s corner in the library on the day, by passing the knitting around everyone.

Our local newspaper, The Area News, has been a great help with publicity in the early days last year. The council also have a leaflet they put out, called CreArtivity, which featured great articles a couple of times.

Where are you getting your patterns from, for all the garden elements?
We are very proud of the fact that we are having to design and write the patterns ourselves for all the Australian flora. There are plenty of patterns of Australian fauna, but we have been totally unable to find any flora. We are blessed with several members who can look at photos and then design, knit, then write out the patterns for Australian flora. We have a book publisher interested in our own designed patterns! So far we’ve managed waratah, bottlebrush, the kangaroo paw and several outback wildflowers.

Can we get involved?
We have some family in England knitting for The Garden, some people in Victoria and Tasmania and someone in New Zealand. So I’m delighted if anyone else wants to contribute; they will need to ask what we still need. A member of Natty Knitters received a flower pattern book from her daughter in the USA last week!

If you’d like to get in contact with Liz, let me know, and I will pass on your enquiry to her.