SHAPELESS woolly jumpers, bobble hats and baby cardigans are the stuff normally associated with those who knit. Dianne Bendle, though, turns that sort of traditional thinking on its head.

When she "knits", she does it big time. And I mean big. For example, her latest project requires her deftness of hand to knit using needles that are each a whopping 15ft long. The aim is to produce a unique work of "knitted" art.

Dianne – who graduated in Bristol and lives in a little village near Midsomer Norton, in north-east Somerset – is renowned for creating exhibits with outsize needles using unorthodox materials.

The needles are crafted by her husband Geoff, who's a woodworker. "They're made out of hardwood and I've got lots, all different sizes and thicknesses," says Dianne.

None of them, though, is as big as the jumbo 15ft pair she's using to craft a special piece for a particular exhibition. It's going to go on show at the Penny Brohn Cancer Care charity headquarters in Pill, near Bristol, as part of a major fund-raising exhibition of artwork.

There will be more than 400 pieces of art on show and the organisers are hoping it will raise £50,000 for the centre and its work.

Dianne's mega-needles have already produced one piece for the show which stands 10ft tall, and another slightly smaller piece will follow. "I'm using foil as the material," she says.

All of her pieces carry titles using what Dianne describes as "forgotten" words, ones rarely used in dialogue any more. Her work for the Penny Brohn Cancer Care exhibition, she says, will be called Fulgent – a word which means "resplendent, bedazzling, brilliant, bright and shining". Dianne sits on a stool to knit her works (even with the big set of needles), and the materials used are many and varied, including elastic bands and zips. She adds: "Some are quite difficult to work with, especially lengths of clothes line – the plastic ones with a metal core inside."

Dianne studied and worked at Norton Radstock College, gaining a diploma in fine art, followed by three years at the University of the West of England in Bristol, graduating with a first-class honours degree in drawing and applied art last year.

Incredibly, given her field of art, she says there's something she can't do, and that's knit in an orthodox way. "I can't knit a jumper or anything like that," she reveals.

Factfile

Originally known as Bristol Cancer Help Centre, Penny Brohn Cancer Care was founded more than 25 years ago by Penny herself (a woman living with cancer) and her great friend and supporter Pat Pilkington MBE, to support people affected by cancer.

It is the UK's first and leading holistic cancer charity that has pioneered and specialises in the Bristol Approach to cancer care – a unique programme of supportive care, combining physical, emotional and spiritual support.

The Penny Brohn Cancer Care exhibition is being held at the charity's new home in Pill, just outside Bristol, during the weekend of October 3 to 5. For more information on the charity and the exhibition, visit www.pennybrohncancercare.org or telephone 01275 370073

Prince Charles is doing his bit for the charity's art exhibition. The heir to the throne, and patron of Penny Brohn Cancer Care, has submitted a signed artist's proof of one of his paintings for the centre's charity auction. The work depicts part of the organic herb gardens in the grounds of his country home near Tetbury, and is entitled The Thyme Walk, Highgrove House. Organisers hope the picture will help raise somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000 towards its total target.