MONTHS of hard work, concentration and not disturbing have paid off as a crocheted Christmas tree takes pride of place.
About 600 squares and 48 lights of 42 feet of yarn make up the creation, which stands in the window of Saddleworth Museum on Uppermill’s High Street.
It is all the work of members of a Grotton-based group that has come out of Covid-19 lockdown – with a name determined not to make a big noise.
It is called Shh…I’m counting after all.
One of the group’s founders, Saddleworth West and Lees Councillor Alicia Marland, revealed the tree – held in shape by chicken wire – shows how creative, and determined, its members are.
She said: “We have about 20 members and everyone has contributed. We started this in January – I got an idea from a place in Italy.
“A group there created a tree and I thought, ‘Maybe we could do something similar.’ We got the pattern, started and this is the result.
“We got all the squares in about October or November. We’d got about 500, built it and realised we didn’t have enough, so we did more.
“One of the ladies created the lights and yarn cable too and the decorations are all crocheted too.
“A lot of the yarn was donated too. Unfortunately during lockdowns, a lot of husbands lost their wives, so we had so much wool donated.
“I’ve been completely bowled over by the reaction to it.”
There is certainly no resting on laurels after the group’s tree made such an impression, meetings are continuing as normal.
Not bad for a family-inspired idea.
Alicia added: “Shh…I’m Counting was an idea created by my daughter during Covid-19 lockdown because we were sent some crochet hooks by my mum and she picked them up and started to teach herself.
“She said, ‘I’d really love to pass this skill on to other people,’ so we came out of lockdown, created a group and invited people along.
“That was July 2021 and we met at Grotton Pavilion. Now we meet there every two weeks on a Wednesday evening.”
The reaction to the tree has been sensational but there is a charitable motivation behind its creation.
Members have all made donations to Oldham Foodbank and Alicia hopes seeing the result of their work can spur others into action.
She told the Independent: “I’m delighted and I really hope people can donate either time or something like a can to Oldham Foodbank.”
Love the tree xx