A group of crafters have made a giant crochet Easter egg to bring a smile to villagers’ faces and raise money for charity.
Philippa Etheridge, 54, told the PA news agency that the giant egg is made of 260 squares, stands at two metres high and 1.5 metres wide, and was created over months in Hurst, Berkshire.
Topped by a white Easter bunny, the giant egg stands near the village playground and is the latest project by the local crochet group, called the Hurst Hookers.
Ms Etheridge said: “People have been driving past and you just see them slow down.
“The egg is on the junction of a school road and yesterday, when I got home from work, there were about six cars parked up with people looking at it.”
The group of crocheters have been meeting every two weeks to create the squares for the egg in the local cricket club in the centre of the village.
“Some of (the squares) have got little patterns and little bunny rabbits and there’s a birdhouse one and people have got quite creative,” Ms Etheridge said.
Meanwhile, villager David Howarth made the frame of the egg with wood, metal and chicken wire in his garage “above his classic car”, Ms Etheridge said, before rows of squares were placed around it.
The idea of creating the giant Easter egg was conceived of by a member of the group, who saw a picture of a similar egg online.
Ms Etheridge said: “She was kind of joking about it and said, how about we do something like this, and we all kind of laughed and I went away from the meeting and thought, well, why not?”
“That’s where it came from.
“It was a bit of a joke at first and then suddenly all the ladies were knitting lots of squares.”
The Hurst Hookers have created a JustGiving page in memory of villager Tom Pearce who died of bowel cancer aged 49 last August.
He was the husband of Catherine, who is a member of the crochet group.
The group are over half way to their goal of raising £1,000 and they hope to sell the egg and the bunny to add to the total.
“If we can’t sell it on for charity, we will take the squares off and they will be washed and we’re going to make those into blankets, there’s lots of different charities that want blankets.
“The actual frame of the egg, we do have a couple of ideas for later events coming up in the year so the metal and the wood will probably be reused in some way for another project.”
She added: “If it doesn’t go somewhere, then we’ve basically got to dismantle it so if anyone can use a very large egg we’re open to offers.”
The Easter egg is the latest creation from the Hurst Hookers, which has previously created 26 crochet soldiers attached to posts around the local pond for Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee celebrations and a nativity for Christmas.
Ms Etheridge said: “The villagers really, really like (the crochet creations).
“It goes down very well.
“Everybody really loves seeing it and it really sort of brightens up the village as well.
“We get lots of messages saying how much people love it.”
To donate to the Hurst Hookers fundraising campaign for Bowel Cancer UK, visit justgiving.com/page/catherine-pearce-1710277572831
