Knitted and crocheted Harry Potter characters add magic touch to Shropshire town
Popular Harry Potter characters have been recreated, including Dumbledore, Dobby and Hagrid.
A town in Shropshire has been given a magical transformation after knitted and crocheted characters from the Harry Potter series were used to decorate trees, benches and postboxes.
The Ellesmere Yarn Bombers have been decorating Ellesmere with their crafted creations since 2018, with Harry Potter chosen as the theme for this year’s summer yarnbomb, a concept which sees colourful knitted and crocheted yarn adorn streets.
“After the suggestion, ideas started flying,” Ms Utting, 56, said.
“Others where like ‘who is that?’ But everyone has really got on board.”
“(Ron Weasley), the red-headed boy with the freckles who’s a bit clumsy and has hand-knitted jumpers, and (Hermione Granger), the nerdy girl in class, become heroes,” she said.
“She’s a very gifted writer and the books lend themselves to children’s imaginations.
“My daughter’s a Slytherin and she passionately supports Slytherin – she’s even got a Slytherin glasses case.”
The inspiration for the work came from patterns online, as well as “from each other”, as the creatives often swap ideas and tips.
Ms Utting added that it was “nice” to see how the group has grown since its inception.
She said it drew inspiration from the death of one of her friends Hannah in 2017, who helped to set up the group.
“We’ve had people commenting from Australia and in America because people have been sharing pictures of them online,” she said.
“Bringing joy has always been our absolute aim – if somebody walks past and they make people smile, then we’ve achieved what we’ve wanted to achieve.”
The crafted creations are to stay up until September and the group has set up a Crowdfunder to raise money for future yarnbombs, which can be accessed here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/ellesmere-yarn-bombing
