Knitter Margaret Seaman, 94, showcases royal landmark tributes in final show
A 94-year-old dubbed the Queen of Knitting has gathered together her woollen landmarks for a final show in a bid to find new homes for the sprawling showstoppers.
Margaret Seaman, of Caister-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has her masterpieces on display at the Norfolk Makers' Festival at The Forum, Norwich.
The great-great grandmother said she had raised £130,000 for charity.
"I've done what I set out to do with them," she said.
"I'm quite happy to see them go - I am not going to be tearful.
"I am just going to let them go and know they're going to a good home where people can still enjoy them."
The nonagenarian knitter's thousands of hours of handiwork - displayed in her homages to Buckingham Palace, Sandringham House, Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile and the pandemic-inspired Knittingale Hospital - will be available to view until Sunday.
The giant detailed replicas, spanning several metres, have garnered Mrs Seaman worldwide fame and seen her awarded a British Empire Medal, with her Sandringham House also picked by artist Grayson Perry as the centrepiece for his Art Club exhibition in Birmingham two years ago.
However, one of Mrs Seaman's personal highlights was when she was surprised by the late Queen Elizabeth as she was setting up her display of Sandringham House on a table in the ballroom of the royal residence.
"We had no idea she was coming - she just walked in and it was absolutely amazing," Mrs Seaman said.
"At one point she said 'Oh, look mummy's gardens' and it was the gardens at the end of the palace building which her mum had designed, so it was really nice she noticed."
Mrs Seaman, who lives with her daughter Tricia Wilson, said that although her craft creations had sparked a "lovely journey", it was now time to part with them as she "can't do as much as I used to".
The stitched showpieces, which pack away into 200 boxes, also cost money to store each year, eating into the charitable earnings, Mrs Seaman added.
Her first project came about in 2013 when she knitted a koi carp pond in tribute to her late husband Fred to raise money for the James Paget Hospital, where he was treated.
With Mrs Seaman now searching for new homes for each labour of love, she said it was the reason why she had displayed them altogether for the first time as anyone interested could see them set up.
And although it might be an end of an era, she said she was not ready to put down the knitting needles yet as she was continuing to raise money for a new children's hospital in Cambridge.
"I have a beach hut near Wellington Pier in Great Yarmouth and all the things we knit - beach huts, flower arrangements and things - we're down there all summer with them on sale," said Mrs Seaman.
"But the big things like this have to go."
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