Brighton charity creates knitted living room (From The Argus)

Brighton charity creates knitted living room

12:51pm Thursday 3rd February 2011 in News By Neil Vowles

This living room is knitted out in all mod cons. The TV, comfy armchair, piano and even the cat are all made out of wool.

There is even a woollen Argus just waiting to be read.

The life-sized replica is part of a Brighton project to raise money and the profile of homeless charity Emmaus.

According to the team of 25 volunteers from Goodwill Co-op, who spent three months crafting the fabricated front room, hundreds, possibly thousands, of balls of donated wool were eaten up by the mission.

Monica Crowe, Emmaus volunteer, who came up with the idea, said: “It kept growing and growing as we thought of more stuff that you could possibly fit into a living room.”

The frames of the furniture are items collected from the skip including cardboard boxes, tyre inner tubes and carpet rolls.

Emmaus business manager Joel Lewis said: “The co-op is a way of bringing people together who don’t talk to a lot of people and getting them to join in with our community.”

Denise Bennett, 82, from Portslade, said she was knitting all the time for the project and completed around three squares in an evening.

She said: “I lost my husband of 60 years and the co-op been a salvation for me.”

The room will be on display at Portslade Town Hall on Saturday, February 26 and then at the Emmaus Centre in Drove Road, Portslade, during May’s Brighton Fringe Festival.

Replicas of the original living room furniture will be available to buy and knitting pattern books will be made so others can also create their own woolly lounge.

But Brighton’s volunteers aren’t quite ready to put down the knitting needles.

Ms Crowe said: “We’re looking to do a kitchen or a bathroom for next May.”