By Susan Hampshire A GROUP of nifty knitters have achieved their most ambitious challenge yet – with a treemendous amount of help from their local community. Members of the ‘Knit and Stitchers’ group decided to knit a Christmas tree with around 1,500 knitted leaves for the annual Christmas Tree Festival at St Thomas’ Church, High Lane and put out an appeal back in the summer to knitters from near and far to lend a hand. The group, which meets most Saturdays 2pm-4pm at the church, was keen to make the challenge a real community affair inviting everyone in High Lane to get involved. And members are delighted with the response with the WI, U3A, local knitters and visitors to High Lane all helping. Knitted leaves came flooding in from local knitters and from as far away as Australia.
The ladies of the group are also extremely grateful to the local Men in Sheds group whose members worked on building a frame for the tree at their meeting. Alison Bardsley from the knitting group said “We really want to thank the Men in Sheds based in the Goyt Mill, Marple for all their help in building the frame. They have been so helpful. “We now have the leaves needed and the tree is being assembled for the three-day festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday November 24 26.” The group has also knitted miniature Christmas trees for sale at the festival as mementos for people to hang on their own festive trees. “We hope the miniature trees will be a nice memento and remind local people of the lovely event,” added Alison. The leaves will be turned into blankets after Christmas and given to charities.
Some of the ladies who have worked on the project next to one of the finished panels Picture: Jonathan Ransom jwransomphotography.com