Volunteers from Bridstow Spinners, Ross-on-Wye are up to their eyes in poppies this month as they busily string together piles of the textile flowers donated by thousands of knitters and fibre fans from all over the UK and abroad.

So far, 40,038 poppies have been sent in support of an appeal by Wonderwool Wales, which will be staging a massive, commemorative WWI installation at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells on April 28th and 29th. Donated poppies will be strung together into a ‘Curtain of Poppies’ which will be displayed in Hall 3, where The Royal British Legion will have a stand and collect donations. The commemorative project, launched at the 2017 show, has encouraged today’s community of knitters to recreate the united determination of the women at home during World War I, who “did their bit” to support the troops overseas by knitting gloves, scarves, balaclavas and socks.

Curtain of Poppies organisers, mother and daughter Olwen and Jane Veevers, are delighted at the way the project has caught the imagination of schools, knitting groups, craft groups and individuals.

Olwen, a coloured sheep breeder and needle felt artist who farms at Cross Ash near Abergavenny said: “The poppies are now coming in thick and fast – at a rate of about five parcels a day. Some of them are already strung together but we’re also getting thousands that are unhitched. The Bridstow Spinners in Ross deserve a huge thank you. Not only have they helped us by making poppies, now several stalwarts are working furiously behind the scenes to sew thousands more onto cords!” 

Poppies are being sent in from all over the UK and Olwen said she had also had parcels from Spain, Alaska and other parts of the US. “It has been amazing and quite humbling! We have also had so many notes from people; some of them have brought a tear to my eye. I hope to make a display of some of them alongside the curtain. One of my favourite notes was from a serving soldier, enclosing a beautiful embroidered felt poppy, who said she had never made anything else by hand in her whole life.”