Find the special knitted corgi and you could be off to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee party
The Women’s Institute is calling on its members to knit toy corgis and hide them across the country in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Queen’s fellow WI members have been tasked with providing a “fun surprise” for unsuspecting passers-by with a nationwide hide-and-seek.
One such corgi will contain a secret sign entitling the person who finds it to a pair of free tickets to the Big Jubilee Lunch in London, on the day of the bank holiday pageant.
The project will call on the skills of WI members, from already-expert knitters to those willing to follow a pattern to create their own corgi. The small dogs can be made in a variety of colours, and each wear a scarf.
They will all be named “WInnie”, a play on the organisation’s name, with the craft project to be known as “Where’s WInnie?”
The pattern for the knitted corgi was designed by WI member Hannah Joyce, and is printed in the March issue of membership magazine, WI Life. Readers are encouraged to start knitting now, with corgis to be hidden from May 1.
The Queen is known throughout the world for her love of corgis, owning the dogs throughout her long reign.
She now owns “dorgis”, a cross between the corgi and the Dachshund, with one named Candy becoming a star in its own right for its frequent appearances on Her Majesty’s engagements at Windsor Castle.
The WI said it wanted to honour its longstanding relationship with the Queen, with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) asking members to “knit a corgi named WInnie and hide her in their local community as a fun surprise for others to find and keep or donate”.
The Queen has been a member of the WI for nearly 80 years, having joined when she was still Princess Elizabeth in 1943.
Like her mother and grandmother before her, she is a member of the Sandringham WI and serves as its president, attending its January meeting each year.
The pattern for WInnie the corgi has been designed by Woolwich and Plumstead Roses WI member Hannah Joyce, a knitting teacher who already showcases her crafts on Instagram and TikTok.
It was created with “sustainability in mind”, with knitters encouraged to use up their leftover yarn and fabric in order to make the figures.
Ms Joyce said: “I want to get people involved who might not be self-confessed knitters.
“Everything has been spelled out in the pattern so that it should be easy to follow. I want to encourage people to reuse and recycle: knit pink corgis, or red, white and blue corgis, and use up whatever yarn you have left over.”
'Lovely way to honour the Queen's achievement'
From May, corgis will be hidden outdoors and in community buildings, each with a tag to allow those who find them to visit the WI website to record it on a map.
Organisers hope to spread them through the UK ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June.
Ann Jones, chair of the NFWI, said she hoped the knitted dog would “brighten the day of anyone who finds her”.
“To celebrate The Queen’s momentous anniversary of 70 years on the throne, we wanted to launch a fun and engaging community project that would share the WI’s love of knitting and craft,” she added.
“The WI has a history of mass knitting projects, having broken the world record for the most people knitting simultaneously in a single location at our 2012 Annual Meeting.”
The project is launched in partnership with The Big Jubilee Lunch, which hopes to inspire neighbours to throw picnics, street parties and garden parties to mark the Queen’s milestone of 70 years on the throne.
Lindsey Brummitt, its programme director, said the “unique community activity” is a “lovely way to honour The Queen’s incredible achievement”.
She added: “It’s really exciting to collaborate with the WI who share our aim to inspire people to try new things and connect with people where they live, so we hope to see knitted Corgi pups popping up all over the UK this spring.”
