Preston Guild - guerilla knitting

When I saw a plea for knitters to take part in Preston Guild in a secret project I just had to ask for details - well, you would, wouldn't you?  We all like the idea of secrets, after all.

So I enquired, and was told that knitters were needed to knit diamonds, many, many diamonds, which would be used for an installation in Preston's Avenham Park.

I received the pattern and began to knit.  We were encouraged to make our diamonds as original as we liked, providing we stuck to the size specified.  I decided to create a small bobble in the centre of all mine so that they would be tactile, and different if a visually impaired visitor touched them.

You can just about make them out in the emerald green ones in the centre.

A few of us got together on Wednesday for a few hours to sew them together.

The dark blue ones with the pale blue bobbles on this piece are also mine!

Watch this space to see what was done with them in the park:)

Preston Guild Proclamation

On Saturday I was a part of the choir that sang the newly written Preston Guild Anthem as part of the opening Proclamation ceremony - an event which has been ongoing since 1179.  Sadly we weren't allowed to take cameras on to the balcony with us, so I have no photos to share:(  but I expect that somebody somewhere will post something on youtube or some other social networking site!

Well, I say ongoing, and that's true, but as it occurs just every twenty years, it certainly isn't something that people around here become bored with!  In fact there's a saying 'once every Preston Guild' which implies that whatever the topic of conversation is, it doesn't happen very often.

So this year I've been rehearsing many hours, and thoroughly enjoying it:)  By the end of the year I will have shared my voice with four choirs - one at the Preston Passion in April, another at the Riversway Festival last month, at the Guild Proclamations, and in another at The Minster, and in Avenham Park.  As well as the small music group at my local Methodist church.

I'd forgotten what fun singing as a part of a group is - if you haven't tried it, give it a go - we can all sing in some way, if we have the correct stimulus:)