The annual global knitting celebration began in 2005 as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy one another’s company.
The Knit in Public event was organised by Oamaru Creative Fibre president Linda Mackenzie and Waitaki District Libraries customer service co-ordinator Eileen Armstrong, and held at the Oamaru Public Library.
Mrs Mackenzie said despite a smaller turnout for the event this year it was "a really good group".
"Some of us all meet and knit together, sometimes for ourselves but mostly for community projects," she said.
Ms Armstrong said she was knitting baby ponchos but had also come across a good design for slippers.
Susan Dickie, who moved to Oamaru from Cromwell two years ago, said the event was a "great way to meet different ladies".
"I’ve been given lots of wool, and I’ve made lots of blankets which I am going to hand over today," she said.
Mrs Dickie had knitted previously for Operation Cover Up, which sends thousands of handmade blankets and warm clothes to children and families in Eastern Europe, and said the 40-strong Lower Waitaki Garden Group, of which she and fellow knitter Stevie Bryson were members, had just knitted "a mountain of Peggy squares".
A New Zealand knitting phenomenon, they were named after a 4-year-old New Zealand girl named Peggy Huse (later Peggy Cook), who was spotted by a radio broadcaster during the Great Depression in the 1930s, knitting small squares to make blankets for her dolls.
The broadcaster took the idea and turned it into a national campaign to provide warm blankets for children in need.
At the gathering, Mrs Bryson was knitting a sweater for herself out of "very expensive merino wool".
"The sheep gave its whole suit for this," she joked.
Yoko Jenner, of Kakanui, said she had learnt "knitting and crochet" from Mrs Mackenzie who was a "good teacher".
Last week, Oamaru Creative Fibre also donated red and black beanies to Totara School pupils as part of one of their projects, having donated the beanies last year to Hampden School.
World Wide Knit in Public Day is usually on June 13 but this date did not suit Oamaru organisers, so it was held last Friday.
