By Kate Lockyer
112 knitted storybook characters will be donated across Queensland to encourage a love of reading in children thanks to a Teneriffe local’s initiative.
Marianne Alcock organises a group of 25 people who meet at New Farm Library every Thursday to knit, but their group project extends across the Australia through a Facebook page called Just Cosies.
Mrs Alcock said: “Over the years we’ve sent hundreds of cosies to different organisations, and this year our focus is on libraries and children’s literature.”
“It’s all about literature and reading but it’s also about us being creative and giving something back,” she said.
Mrs Alcock said their knitting is being donated to libraries and to Longreach School of Distance Education.
Some of the characters will be used in lessons and others sold to raise funds to send outback children to writer’s events like Brisbane Writers Festival and Somerset Storyfest.
Alice in Wonderland tea cosy currently on display at New Farm Library, made by Carola de Keijzer, Barbara Snell, Sally Cherry, Marianne and Kevin Alcock
Last year, they sent over 150 wildflower tea cosies to the Fitzgerald biosphere, which has the largest range of unique wildflowers in Australia, and in 2021 they sent about 250 cosies to Miles, which were sold to raise money for outback charities and businesses doing it tough.
While in previous years the group has made tea cosies, this year there have been plenty of puppets and dolls too, from Pippi Longstocking and Bluey to the Wimpy Kid and his diary.
Mrs Alcock said it sometimes takes up to a month to finish a character, or longer, depending on how complex it is.
One particularly intricate design was an Alice in Wonderland tea cosy, which took five people.
With three months left to go on the project, Mrs Alcock said: “We call on anyone who is interested to create a storybook character and donate it to their local library.”
In September, Marianne and her husband Kevin Alcock will create a book called Once Upon a… that documents the project and the contributor’s creations.
“When you make something, it’s magical. You say ‘I think I can, I think I can’. And then you make it, and think ‘oh, my heart’.”
“But I don’t think it’s the magic of making; I think it’s the magic of giving,” she said.
Marianne Alcock with some of the group’s colourful characters
