Members and friends of the Country Women's Association in Mittagong have crocheted and knitted 800 poppies for a cover to adorn the Cenotaph on Anzac Day.

The club's craft officer, Carol Nolan, said one of the members first suggested the poppy pattern and then, "in the middle of the night, it came to me".

"Why don't we knit a cover for the Cenotaph in Mittagong? We could cover it with poppies. Then I got the girls together, and it grew like topsy," Mrs Nolan said.

"When I was a child, way back, it used to be a fountain. You'd go and get your drink at the Cenotaph. Over the years they've filled it in ... and now it's used to place the [Anzac Day] wreaths on. We realise that poppies are generally for Remembrance Day [November 11] and rosemary is for Anzac Day, [but] we just couldn't let this opportunity of 100 years go by without a special commemoration."

Some poppies have come from as far afield as Tasmania and the NSW north coast. "Once people find out what's going on, they want to become involved because they've got family members on the Honour Roll at the Cenotaph," Mrs Nolan said.

The craft group has so far hand-stitched 600 of the 800 poppies on the 2.5 sq m cover. Member Rita Gilroy said she had "always been involved in everything" the CWA had done in crafts, but that "this has been something special".