I recently met a lovely lady named Sue. I was sitting in her front room listening to her chatting away and I was struck by how much community spirit she has. Real genuine community spirit. It's rare to find these days.

How did I meet Sue? Well, I saw her posting on social media and reached out to her.

Sue lives in a village local to me here in North Devon, she is the parish clerk and Sue has a grand vision for this little village on the edge of Exmoor. I'm sure you have also seen the beautiful cascading poppy displays that communities put together around the world, well, Sue is hoping to put one together to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, the end of World War 2 in Europe in May 2025. A spectacular cascade gently falling down the local church tower.

Now Sue also has a problem. She cannot crochet or knit! This is how I came to be sitting in her front room.

I saw Sue has been trying to bring the local community together, looking for volunteers to help - she has been busily approaching local crafting groups, nursing and retirement homes, local schools, she even reached out to Tom Daley's "people" in an attempt to drum up support.

Obviously I can crochet, hence reaching out and I offered to supply yarn, my hands and my time to help out. I am volunteer number 31.

However, this got me thinking.

Perhaps I could rally the troops?

I'm sure you have already realised where this blog post is going, HOWEVER, I want to be REALLY clear: I am not expecting anything from anyone.

I very rarely ask for anything from my community; 7 years ago back in 2017 I did a shout out for granny squares which I was joining for a local charity to make blankets for the homeless but that was a little different. We all have random granny squares lying around - that was an easy ask.

This however, is not.

I am acutely aware that this is asking a lot from you in both time and effort. We don't all have crochet or knit poppies just hanging around our WIPs! You would need to go out of your way to specifically spend time making something then there is the additional effort and expense of shipping it to me - none of this is an easy "quick" thing you can pop in the post box without a second though.

So let me repeat that I am not expecting anything from anyone.

However, if even just one person sent just one poppy, that would be one poppy closer to a stunning cascade of flowers and that's all I'm asking.

With Remembrance Sunday / Remembrance Day / Veterans Day just around the corner, if you happen to already be crocheting or knitting poppies and could spare one for me that would be unbelievably amazing!

I have set up a PO Box address which will be open from today for 3 months (November, December & January 2025) just in case!

Hooked by Robin Poppies

PO Box 431

BARNSTAPLE

EX32 2LF

United Kingdom

You may have also seen me posting on Facebook a few weeks ago asking for your favourite poppy patterns and so many people linked me to fabulous free patterns; I've tested a few out and I think I've settled on which one is the simplest and easiest for me to make en masse - I'm including these below so you can check them out for yourself as there are some truly stunning patterns out there!

Poppy Patterns in my photo above:

Top Left: Moara Crochet Poppy Pattern This is the prettiest poppy but also the most time consuming!

Top Middle: Thoresby Cottage Poppy Pattern

Top Right: Wendy Poole Knits Crochet Poppy video tutorial

Bottom Left: Spin A Yarn Crochet Poppy Pattern​

Bottom Right: Emma Leith Crochet Poppy Pattern Emma's pattern uses UK Stitch Terminology I adapted this pattern slightly - the black center I filled in a bit by starting with 6 single crochet into a ring and then for round 2, increased in each stitch for 12 single crochet.

I'm erring towards using Spin a Yarn Crochet's pattern for my poppies as they work up reasonably quickly and are a good size - I do however prefer the look of Emma Leith's so perhaps I'll have a mix 😅

If you have made it this far then THANK YOU for taking the time to read this blog post, as I said, this is not the normal type of thing I’d post about and it's very rare I ask for anything.

Until next time, happy crocheting!

Robin

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P.S. Thank you