More South Australians live to knit than “LIV” to play golf: An open letter to the SA Government, Events SA, and South Australian Tourism Commission

Dear Premier, South Australia prides itself on being a close knit community.

This open letter is to draw your attention to a pastime that involves more South Aussies than golf, and has potential to bridge the gap between between our festival seasons of January-April (TDU, Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival, Writers Week, WOMAD, Tasting Australia, Gather Round, and LIV Golf) and June to August (Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Illuminate, Winter Reds, Adelaide Guitar Festival).

I write about Knitting.

I’m not here to throw stones at our golfers (the only thing I throw occasionally is yarn) but rather to suggest a new, novel event that will occupy our state, interstate visitors, and even international visitors, throughout the month of May.

I present: LIV Knit.

Borrowing from the successful formula of LIV Golf, we propose the following for LIV Knit:

• 48 knitters divided into 12 teams of 4
• All teams must complete 54 knits from South Australia designers including socks, shawls, and two scarf designs; one for Port Adelaide and one for Adelaide

LIV Knit fixtures would be held throughout regional South Australia and metropolitan Adelaide during the first two weeks of May.

The finals series would then be held in Adelaide at the Festival Centre.

To encourage diversity, we would ensure we have at least one all-male team, one under-30s team, and that at least half of all competitors come from regional S.A.

The real boost to our economy that will set us apart from LIV Golf, is that every single spectator will also be encouraged to knit along at home or in community gatherings for the event. We might even call them “Gather Rounds”.

LIV Knit will be a flagship event for the newest niche in television that has already been embraced by Netflix, namely, Slow Television. Stitch by stitch, row by row, knitters around the world, along with curious viewers, will be enthralled by this new, competitive take on knitting. It might be too intense for golf viewers, but our commentators will help calm their nerves.

As one of the world’s centres for game development and innovative special effects, we would welcome a partnership with the SA Film Corporation to draw from SA’s talent pool to craft special knitting needles fitted with cameras and movement sensors. This will enable real time, 3D rendering of each stitch. Rights to LIV Knit for popular gaming consoles would be available to sell, along with television rights.

Dear Premier, as you can see, other markets will be tempted to jump on this opportunity, especially New Zealand which has a healthy knitting population like ours. So, please reach out to hold discussions as soon as possible so we can get this all sewn up.

As Adam Liaw rightfully tweeted during the Gather Round, people are always calling Adelaide boring and it’s events like LIV Knit that will help make it possible to achieve that wonderful state of “perpetual carnival”.

On behalf of my team at Yarn Trader, and our hordes of knitters, we are ready to help take LIV Knit from a WIP to an FO.

Photo by Nik on Unsplash