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Festive knitters return with Dickens theme

Haughton Ladies Who Knit Several colourful knitted characters from the Charles Dickens' novella, 'A Christmas Carol'. The characters are depicted as mice dressed in period costume and sit as a postbox topper.Haughton Ladies Who Knit
The display features all the characters from A Christmas Carol

A group of knitters have picked up their needles once again to decorate their village with some festive delight.

The Haughton Ladies Who Knit group stitched characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to add some colour to 52 parking bollards and a postbox in Haughton-le-Skerne, near Darlington.

Last year, knitter Carol Clayton created a "12 Days of Christmas" display among other festive woolly figurines made by the group.

Mrs Clayton said this year's characters have had an "amazing response", adding it had been a "hard year for some" and the group just wanted "to make people happy".

Haughton Ladies Who Knit Two colourful knitted characters from the Charles Dickens' novella, 'A Christmas Carol'. The characters are mice and sit as a bollard topper.Haughton Ladies Who Knit
The Haughton Ladies Who Knit started stitching the figurines in October

The display around Haughton Green and along Stockton Road features all of the characters from the book including Tiny Tim, the Ghost of Christmas Past and Bob Cratchit.

There are also other Christmas figurines adorning parking bollards.

Mrs Clayton said the group started knitting the figurines in October.

"I would do my knitting in the evenings and would sometimes stay up until just after midnight... but it's so worth it."

Haughton Ladies Who Knit A knitted Christmas elf figurine dressed in a long pink hat sits on bollard beside a road in DarlingtonHaughton Ladies Who Knit
The knitting group said they just "wanted to bring some cheer" to Haughton

"It was a group effort and we all created at least two characters," Mrs Clayton added.

The group said: "It has made us all so happy doing them."

Haughton Ladies Who Knit Three more colourful knitted characters from the Charles Dickens' novella, 'A Christmas Carol'. The characters are depicted as mice and sit on a bollard.Haughton Ladies Who Knit
Haughton Ladies Who Knit have created displays for several occasions since 2022

The knitters got together in 2022.

They have created special scenes for the Coronation of King Charles III as well as Remembrance displays and one for the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Haughton Ladies Who Knit A wide residential street separated by a central grass verge with a line of well-established trees. Among the knitted characters sitting on bollards are a horse, Father Christmas and three mice characters in Dickensian dress.Haughton Ladies Who Knit
Knitter Carol Clayton said this year's characters have had an "amazing response"

The group said that they were "all about community spirit" and "bringing some cheer" to the village.

"We've had people come here from different towns purely to see the display... and school groups come along too."

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