a mighty impressive yarn

My goodness. I knew the Canberra's Longest Bookmark team had been busy these past 8 or 9 months, but it seems the capital's knitters have been even busier.

Just look what confronted me when I rocked up to Civic Library today {above, below, everywhere}. Astonishing.

That's me {lying down, which is SO something I would do} with the Dickson Library team, headed by the amazing Elena, on just some of the four kilometres of bookmarks - yes, that's right - 4km - of knitted bookmarks, a fabulous National Year of Reading initiative that has not only helped promote a deep love of reading, but has really become an enormous community project, with over 220 registered knitters, including knitting groups. Knitters ranged from children to the elderly including a number in their eighties, and schools, public libraries, local and international authors, nursing homes, all contributed to the project.

Can you believe how busy some knitters have been? I met a woman who had contributed 600 to this cause. Here is my measly contribution - below:

Two.

Well, it's been a busy year! But I must admit, the gorgeous knitters at this event still gave me a gracious round of applause when I showed off my creations {and did I hear laughter as well!?}. They were too kind - trust me, too kind.

Here is the official ceremony for the Longest Bookmark, with Elena Battey {in blue, above} giving us some facts and figures.

Next was me - talking about this fabulous National Year of Reading, and how special this event was for our community.

And then we also heard from Karen Hansen, Acting Director, Libraries ACT {in red, below}. Karen said it was wonderful to see people with personal challenges such as Parkinson's disease, MS and arthritis, or on bed rest, taking part in this project - and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Here is me with CBCA member and amazing reading activist Julie Long {centre} with Elena Battey, checking out the astonishing array of contributions. Volunteers are now being sought to help sew the bookmarks into blankets which will be donated to a local charity in 2013.

Here are some supersonic stats:

• 367.5 kilometres of wool used in project
• the total length of all bookmarks, laid end to end is 4 km
• all wool, needles, materials were donated
• bookmarks were received from as far afield as London, Germany, New Zealand, and from all over Australia
• a creative array of bookmarks were submitted along with the regular ones, including sunglasses, a doll, embroidered bookmarks and individually decorated bookmarks
• over 5,000 bookmarks donated by anonymous knitters
• 24,500 bookmarks have been received - and are STILL coming in!

Did you know the benefits of knitting?

• Calming; occupies different areas of the brain whilst freeing up others
• Eases stress by releasing serotonin into the body
• Increased communication skills
• Can help with obsessive/compulsive disorder 
• Mildly obsessive, so can help with other addictions
• Occupies the hands so can assist in stopping smoking
• Has been known to help sufferers of post-traumatic stress syndrome - both in knitting and the observation of knitting

and the benefits for school age children:

• Knitting helps kids with maths, reading, concentration, control , follow-through and a sense of mastery
• Improve hand/eye co-ordination, small motor skills and communication

It's not too late to contribute! See here for more.

Oh - and how did we get those impressive aerial shots? Handsome young man with a cherry picker to the rescue . . .

Thank you, Mr Cherry Picker man! {need to get me one of those. . . }