Knitting Scarves for Lions for the Lion-hearted

By Lauren O'Farrell

Most knitters have knit for someone. A hat for a niece, a pair of socks for grandpa, a tea cosy for your sister's neighbour's dogsitter. We all know that it is a fabulous feeling to be able to hand over something you made with sticks and string and get an ooo and an ahh over it.

Few of us, even those extreme knitters out there, could ever say that they knit for a giant lion though. Or could they?

In October 2006 a tiny idea of a scarf for a London monument began to grow into over 200-foot of worldwide Giant Trafalgar Square Lion Scarf. Scarves knit in honour and support of all those Lion-hearted people fighting cancer every day.

Giant Lion Scarves to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research? A crazy idea for sure, but in London anything can happen. It takes just one stitch to start a giant scarf after all...

Stitch and Bitch London began in January 2006. Laura Parkinson (22) knit when she was a wee bairn and was relearning, Georgia Reid (32) put down her needles years ago and was picking them up again, and myself, Lauren O'Farrell, who wanted to learn to knit to fill hours of boredom spent having treatment for cancer.

We met in an East London pub one chilly afternoon. We knitted, we laughed, we got some funny looks, we loved it. We wanted more...

A year later and, thanks to the internet and word of mouth, Laura and I now run a bit of a radioactive beast of a knitting group (with Georgia running a little sister group in Glasgow). To give you an idea of the scale of it, 50 knitters swamped a South Bank bar in January 2007, and the mailing list we now run has bubbled over the 500 mark.

My own cancer is now well and truly history, thanks in a large part to knitting like a demon (the chemo and radiotherapy helped too). Laura insists that knitting cured my cancer, and I am not going to protest. You can't sit around feeling sorry for yourself when you are meant to be creating a big bad baby blanket, and it is impossible to stay in a hospital bed when you know you are missing out on so much stitching and bitching.

So when National Knitting Week reared its yarn-covered head we knew we had to do something amazing to celebrate our group and my victory against cancer. If knitting could cure me, then why not the world?

The Giant Trafalgar Square Lion Scarves combine the two things that our group love most. Knitting and London. It is about showing London what an army of knitters can do, it is about bringing knitters across the globe together for one cause close to all our hearts, and most importantly of all it is about knitting for giant lions. And all this is helping us to raise money for Cancer Research, as those who knit (or can't knit but want to join in) donate to the Lion Scarf Fund too.

If a good cause isn't enough then along with it there is the free Lion Scarf draw to win a Giant Scarf (or some fabulous Lion Brand goodies, including giant needles). So any sponsor could win a fantastic piece of knitting .

We have had Lion Scarf patches fly in from all over the world, and their stories either amaze us, make us laugh, or have us reaching for the knitted hankies.

In New Mexico, USA, Amber knitted her patch for her Uncle who died from a rare bone cancer. Along with her scarf part she tells us "Knitting has helped me cope with the loss of a man who was as strong as a lion and who fought his cancer like a lion until the day he died."

In Sydney, Australia, Julia picked up her needles again just for the lion and said "The Lion Scarf has touched so many people. My mum's friend is knitting away at her scarf, even though she's just has surgery for breast cancer."

Here in London, England, Beate is fighting a rare kind of tumour. Her mum knit her patch of scarf to support her. Beate loves the idea of knitting a giant scarf but says "I've tried to knit a bit myself, but failed miserably".

We have also had two amazing donations:

The yarn and needles of Mary Williams, a brave knitter who recently lost her battle against colon cancer, were donated by her husband. Her needles are now being used not only to knit the Lion Scarf, but also to teach people to knit.

In January an enormous bag of yarn and giant needles were donated by Lion Brand Yarn from the USA. This meant that at the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Excel in late February hundreds of knitters could join us to knit on giant needles, and share their stories.

We really hope to be able to dazzle London with our warm lions wearing their worldwide scarves proudly and roaring in support of Cancer Research on March 20th at 11am. We would like as many knitters as possible to come down and see the be-scarfed Lions in their full glory.

Our knitted hats are off to everyone who is part of this bizarre but brilliant event. As a group we are humbled by the way that knitters from all walks of life have come together to warm Lions for the lion-hearted. The People of the Knit are changing the world one stitch at a time, and we are proud to be a part of it.