For months now, the clickety-click of knitting needles has filled the air of Joan Bolan’s Narooma home. Last week she presented the Narooma RSL Sub Branch with 400 hand-made poppies, destined for the War Memorial in Canberra.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Although Ms Bolan had knitted for four-and-a-half months, using nearly 40 balls of wool, she said it was “a pleasure” to create the tribute poppies.
“I had a grandfather who was badly injured in the war,” Ms Bolan said of Joseph Peart, who died from his injuries shortly after the First World War. “I have always thought about the soldiers, about how terrible it was for them. I am so appreciative of everybody in the war effort for keeping us safe.”
Now aged 75, Ms Bolan started knitting when she was six. She first saw knitted memorial poppies while watching television last year: “I thought, ‘I can do that, I will do that.”
“You get about 11 poppies per ball of wall and it took me about an hour and twenty per poppy.”