(knitted) paralympics

I make no secret of the fact that I hate sport. I never watch sport on TV, and I often comment that I moved to the UK just to get away from sports-mad Australia. I’d never been to a single sports game in my life (outside of forced school days). Well, now I have!
A friend managed to snaffle a couple of tickets to the Paralympic athletics, and really, it would have been rude not to go. Even for a sports hater, it really was very exciting.

The Stratford Olympic park was amazing. Even though there were probably 80 000 people at the venue, everything ran so smoothly. The army seemed to be managing the security checks which were incredibly fast; airports could learn a thing or two!

We had really great seats (well done Andrea) with the 200m track events starting right in front of us. With so many track finals happening, the field events got somewhat neglected. The javelin was fun to “ooh” and “aah” over, and the mini Minis were a brilliant idea for returning the javelins.

I also got to do a Mexican wave, so that’s my sporting experience complete.

I then went to see a Paralympics of a different kind. The kind that’s knitted!

Some of you may have seen media stories about a woman by the name of Mary Haggerty in Walthamstow who put up a knitted olympics display. I didn’t get a chance to visit, but I followed her on twitter, and made sure to see her Paralympic display. I did a bit of a Saturday afternoon touring wiht a few of my knitting group.  I think the display has become quite the tourist attraction:

Definitely not your average front garden!

If you’re in London this weekend I’d highly recommend heading to Walthamstow as it’s the last days of the fab E17 Art Trail. I’d love to hear about favourite art works and exhibitions you’ve seen over the past fortnight.

Personally, I’m not in London at the moment as I’m on my way up to Scotland for a knitting retreat. More about that when I return…