The children who attend Gateway Primary School love looking out for the various displays of knitted characters which appear throughout the year on the verge outside Lyn Smart’s home. Each display can take Lyn up to six weeks to create and she aims to knit five a year.
Lyn has also combined fund-raising with her knitting, having raised £700 five years ago when she knitted 1,000 poppies that were displayed in Carterton Primary. The money raised from selling the knitted poppies went to both the School and the Royal British Legion.
One of Lyn’s first displays was a beehive with a collection of bumble bees that were displayed in the tree. Each bee was different to demonstrate to children how we are not all the same, but we can live alongside each other quite happily.
Over the three years that Lyn has been creating her knitted characters, she has put together some impressive displays for Remembrance Day, Christmas, Halloween, and Easter where the children participated in decorating 60 Easter eggs. Some of her projects involve using a range of recycled items to create the background displays for her knitted characters; her fairground carousel was one such example.
To commemorate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee earlier this year, Lyn sourced a royal purple yoga mat and stitched a crown on it using buttons and sequins. This will be a fitting tribute to Her Majesty following her passing. Lyn has also created a reminder of the Queen’s favourite corgis.
To celebrate the children’s return to school in early September, there was a fabulous display of fourteen Minions accompanied by Gru and their boat which was made from a recycled wall hanging from the Carterton branch of the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary shop where Lyn volunteers each week.
One of Lyn’s favourite characters was a Chelsea pensioner made for a friend of hers who lives in the Isle of Wight. Her imagination is limitless, and she loves watching the childrens’ faces when they see a new display.
