GOODNESS gracious, great balls of twine! Is this the world’s biggest cardy?
Jean Westbrook reckons so, having put 60 balls of wool into her colourful creation.
The mother-of-four, of Great King Street, Macclesfield, is submitting the woolly mammoth to the Guinness Book of Records and will wear it next month at top London arts exhibition "One&Other", by Anthony Gormley, of Angel of the North fame.
"It took me three weeks to knit and is about 5ft wide and long," said Jean, who took up her needles for a project at Macclesfield College, where she is taking an arts degree.
Her spun splendour uses the garter stitch with curtain rings for buttons. Jean, 54, put her whirling fingers to work during evenings in front of the TV.
"I have been knitting since I was a little girl – my granny taught me," said Jean, who has fostered children for 22 years and is an activities co-ordinator at East Cheshire Hospice.
"It is amazing how many people say they actually feel safe in their cardigan. And everyone has a favourite.
"I do knit really quickly. I worked on it about three hours a day.
"It was part of a project about how we hide behind the big issues – the elephant in the room or issue we don’t want to talk about, like death."
She takes her cardy to the capital next month after being one of 2,400 people chosen to stand for an hour on a plinth, for a "living monument" dreamt up by Anthony Gormley. Each person can spend the hour doing whatever they choose.
"You can strip off but I won’t be doing that – I have promised my children. So I will be putting on my cardigan."
And Jean’s great yarn doesn’t end there.
The cardy is on display at Macclesfield College this week.
