The 57 expatriate Indian women in Oman who have been in the company of yarn and hook since August 2015 determined to complete their share of the biggest crochet blanket in the world were in a mood of jubilation yesterday as their efforts have helped the organisers in Chennai, India, to break the Guinness World Records 2016. They are now waiting for the arrival of the participant certificate to decorate their home walls for being a contributor to the world’s largest crochet blanket.
Abeda Shakil said the whole journey began when they saw the story on facebook, “Today the women have broken the record of making the largest crochet which measures up to 11,148 square meters. The previous record was just 3,377 square meters by South Africa in April 2015”.
More than 2,000 women across the globe participated in the Mother India Crochet Queens’ project initiated by Subhashri Natrajan in Chennai. Abeda has been crocheting for the last 20 years. While others were introduced in schools there were few of the ladies who were completely new to the concept. “I began with crochet only for this mission. It is a very prestigious record. My friends taught me the techniques,” said Nirmala Raghu. It was Nirmala’s duty to follow up with the cargo to reach the organiser Subhashri Natrajan in Chennai.
“Social media was the key element. We got connected and inspired. From a group of 5 we became a group of 55. Five children participated too. We are just too overwhelmed,” said Kiran Preet Sahni.
As for Menaka Kesavan, she said now that her school interest in crochet has been retriggered she is not going to look back. “The size was specific for all — it was 40×40 inch. Some of the members achieved their target very quickly but it took me a week. As we began the interest grew continuously,” added Priyah Shivakumar.
“I am proud to be part of this team and there are no words to express the happiness as we broke the record today,” expressed Vaishali Bafna.
The group of 57 met many occasions just to inspire each other and Qurum Nature Park was an ideal location to spread out the colourful blankets to see the progress of work. Each part of the work had to be recorded and photographed as proof.
The group chose the Taj as the signature blanket. The total size to the blanket made by the ladies in Oman was 257 sq m. After winning the record all the blankets have been separated and handed over to various charity organisations. Few members of the group shared the excitement of breaking the record with Oman Observer by showing crochet work made with left over thread of their once in a lifetime project.