A REMEMBRANCE poppy display has been knitted by members of Alston community.

Holly Ho, 64, lives in Alston and cares for her son Elgar, 26.

Holly saw a poppy display in Hexham near the Beaumont Hotel and made an appeal to local knitters in her community to help make a poppy display for Alston for Remembrance Day.

Hexham Courant: The purple poppy horse The purple poppy horse (Image: Newsquest)

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Along with knitting red poppies, she and members of the local Knit and Natter Facebook group and other women from the community worked together to knit two large purple horses made out of poppies for both Alston and Nenthead.

Holly said purple poppy horses kept appearing on her Facebook timeline and she thought they were 'so pretty' she should make one for Alston.

Hexham Courant: The community poppy displayThe community poppy display (Image: Newsquest)

"I promised to do one for Nenthead, the whole body was made by ladies from Knit and Natter and I was very happy with the result.

"I joined a craft interest group in 2017 and I didn't know how to read patterns, until a lady in the group taught me how to. In November 2019 I started knitting poppies and I haven't knitted anything else for three years," Holly said.

"The outlines for the horses were drawn by Sheila Mitton and I didn't know what to do with the outlines, it was trial and error until I completed the first few poppies and after that it was really easy.

Hexham Courant: The poppy display at Alston Town HallThe poppy display at Alston Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

"It's worth it, the local residents are happy with it and I've never done anything like this before so you can imagine how happy I am," Holly said.

 

The poppy display nearly covers the wall outside Alston Town Hall near the war memorial, and Holly says it took around 10 months to complete the whole display.

Hexham Courant: The poppies marking the 107 Alston men who died in World War I and IIThe poppies marking the 107 Alston men who died in World War I and II (Image: Newsquest)

She said she knitted the poppies while watching television, listening to the radio or while she had nothing to do, so she didn't keep track of the hours spent knitting.

Holly still wants to knit more poppies to cover the whole wall.

To represent the 107 Alston men who died in both World Wars, a large 100 was knitted out of 107 poppies.