UAE Women Knit World's Largest Blanket, Create Guinness Record

The biggest, the tallest, the largest. The UAE is known for its superlatives and to add to the list, the knitting committee set a Guinness Book of World Record for creating the world’s largest blanket with the largest number of heart icons.

Over 3,200 blankets measuring a minimum of one-metre by one-metre, knitted by 500 women belonging to 27 nationalities in record 18 months’ time, were tacked together at an event last weekend to create a 3,150 square metre blanket with 5,279 hearts. The initiative was an effort to help underprivileged kids across the world.

Blankets tacked together to form the world's largest blanket.

Kanika Kapur, a former CEO, gave up her corporate job to devote time for humanitarian causes. Being inspired by the Nelson Mandela Blanket initiative where 67 blankets were hand-knit to create the largest portrait blanket and world record in 2017, led the initiative.

The expatriate women in Dubai joined hands to work at The Knit-a-thon project initiated last April aimed at making huge blankets that could be used by kids across the world.

Women who formed the knitting committee, Jyothi Kapoor, Dr. Nishi Singh, Anuradha Ananth, Mamta Saxena, Manju Ansari, Dipika Kalra and Avani Shah said in a statement, “The Knitathon was started as project to keep children warm worldwide and attempt two Guinness records. It evolved into a journey of creativity, empowerment and the knitting together of people not only of different nationalities but of different genders and age groups.”

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Hearts all the way

The expatriate women in Dubai joined hands to work at The Knit-a-thon project initiated last April aimed at making huge blankets that could be used by kids across the world. Within the year, friends, relatives, kids and other women from across India, Canada, Philippines, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and other countries took up the knitting challenge.

Framed

Kanika, who has singlehandedly knitted 101 blankets, believed that the project was different because the women-led group knitted not just blankets, but love and empathy for children so they could feel both the warmth of the wool and the tremendous goodwill and empathy that people have woven into the strands.

Women force at work

The giant blanket was displayed at a special event in Dubai Sports City on September 13. It will be later dismantled and sent to orphanages around the world.

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Listening to people, Yasmeen Maqbool acquaints herself to their life’s feature. What inspires and encourages, she’s always on the lookout for ‘passionistas’ and weaves their stories to bring to you the movers and shakers of today! Her only other true indulgence is spending quality time with her green fingers while listening to Jagjit Singh ‘ghazals’.