One woman’s vision to cycle Scotland and bring her trip to life through knitting the sights along the way is coming to South Ayrshire. Janet Renouf-Miller's ‘Knit 1 Bike 1’ exhibition will be on display at Ayr's Carnegie Library from Friday 31 March - Monday 10 April, 2017.
Janet's 818 textile journey round Scotland took place from 29 June to 5 September 2015, an epic cycle trip of 69 days. What's more she delivered 21 free mini workshops all over Scotland, the first of which was at the Robert Burns Heritage Museum in Alloway. Janet has knitted a Brompton folding bicycle like the one she used to get around Scotland, a strawberry sponge cake, a packet of smoked salmon, the Isle of Mull ferry, several worms, caterpillars, sheep horns, spiders; with her biggest project being the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which featured in the Harry Potter movies. Janet Renouf-Miller said, “The day I set off on the bike was like a dream and the support I’ve had along the way has been nothing short of amazing. “Many local people have followed my progress on my blog and social media and I could not have done this without them. “Creating the work for the exhibition was a challenge, especially the crocheted, Glenfinnan Viaduct. The tricky thing was getting a 15 foot/4.5m woolly bridge, complete with train, to stand up by itself.”
Jill Cronin, South Ayrshire Council’s Head of Enterprise, Development and Leisure said she was sure the unusual event would prove to be a big hit, “This fabulous exhibition brings one woman’s amazing journey to life in incredible detail, and I’m sure people will be thrilled to see the end result. “While I can’t promise the knitted equivalent of Brig o’ Doon this time around, perhaps we can persuade Janet to work her magic on some of our local landmarks for her next visit to South Ayrshire. “This exhibition is a great example of the type of event people can expect to find at our libraries and I’d encourage anyone with an interest to get down to the Carnegie to take in this knitted visual feast.”