Team GB’s athletes returned home this week from their most successful away Olympic games ever and their achievements have been immortalised in wool!

Unique tribute

Following the London 2012 Olympic games Team GB’s athletes were celebrated with golden post boxes to mark their achievements. However, Standard Wool thinks a north-London based family have gone one step better by recreating them in wool.

The needle-wielding family from Walthamstow have provided a unique tribute to some of Team GB’s most successful athletes with special sporty knitted dolls.

Mo Farah, who picked up two more gold medals to go with his brace in London, has been given the wooly treatment performing his iconic ‘M’ celebration.

Other Olympians to have been recreated include double gold medallist gymnast Max Whiltock, Greg Rutherford who picked up bronze in the long jump and tennis player Andy Murray who picked up his second Olympic gold medal.

Knitters

The family began knitting four years ago and have used a variety of themes such as national events, holidays or pop culture to create their figurines.

Suzanne Haggerty does the majority of the knitting and is assisted by her niece Samantha Chaplin and her 79 year-old nan Mary Haggerty.

Speaking to itv.com, Samantha Chaplin said: “We chose to celebrate Rio because we have always loved the games and the Olympics is something that only comes around once every four years so it should be celebrated in style and for us that’s with knitting.

“We enjoy knitting displays because they often make people stop their day to look, laugh, smile or sometimes even wonder why on earth we do it.

It’s a fun hobby to have even if it has gone a bit over the top now.”

How is wool made?

Standard Wool is one of the largest buyers of British wool, but how does sheep’s wool turn into the fabric that is used to create the above characters. It’s a seven stage process, which is detailed, here:

How is wool made? The Manufacturing Process

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