NOW THAT’S A CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY!
IT began with a simple idea to knit her own house. But once May Aitcheson had finished that, she admits the project started to ‘snowball’.
Seven months – and millions of stitches – later, the pensioner and her army of knitting enthusiasts have created an impressive model of Cloughmills, their tiny village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The fluffy replica includes present landmarks such as the post office, pubs and shops, as well as historical sites including the old shirt factory and linen mill, which the village grew up around. It even includes the children’s playground and allotment plots full of cauliflowers.
Grandmother Mrs Aitcheson, 73, set up the Cloughmills Crochet Club about seven years ago after she retired from working in a shop. But none of their projects had been quite so ambitious in their scope until she visited a village that had created a smaller woolly version of itself, and decided to try knitting her own home.
Soon all 35 members of her club, who meet every Wednesday morning for two hours in the village hall, were committed to the project too. The knitters range in age from 49 to 87.
Some 1,500 people have been to see the model, despite the actual village only having a population of 1,000. Mrs Aitcheson said: ‘The knitted landmarks have a really good likeness to the real ones – I took pictures on my tablet and we worked off them. I’m absolutely thrilled with it, I can’t believe it turned out the way it did. The ladies worked so hard, I’m very proud of them.’