MEMBERS of a new knitting club based at a school in Ely have been hard at work making scores of warm clothes in a bid to help the troops in Afghanistan keep warm. The KaBle Club, whose members are all staff at Highfield School, have been getting together

MEMBERS of a new knitting club based at a school in Ely have been hard at work making scores of warm clothes in a bid to help the troops in Afghanistan keep warm.

The KaBle Club, whose members are all staff at Highfield School, have been getting together once a week to knit, sew and stitch a whole range of items, and they are hoping that their first load will go to help keep the nations soldier's warm some 4000 miles away in Afghanistan.

The club was started by school teacher Christine Perry, who was inspired to revive her interest in knitting following the death of her sister-in-law, who herself was a skilled needlewoman.

After being handed her sister-in-law's patterns and yarns Mrs Perry ventured the idea of setting up an after-school club at Highfield and before long the club had taken off,

"We started the club off with just a few of the ladies who had knitted before but since then we have been joined by those who have never had a go before and just wanted to learn a new skill, said Mrs Perry.

"One of our newer members mentioned that she had a partner who was heading out to Helmand province in June and we decided that we would knit some bits for him and send them over when he arrived, because what people often don't understand is that during winter it gets extremely cold out there."

The group promptly knitted a sack full of goods to send out in June and are now awaiting clearance from army top brass to see if they will transport the load.

"One of my pupils mentioned that his dad was in the army and was based at Waterbeach, so I sent across a letter asking about how we could send the items and we are now awaiting a call to see if we can get the all clear to send them," said Christine.

The club received help with knitting patterns and wool supplies from at Bobb-In wool shop in Ely High Street for their current small-scale project but Mrs Perry believes that the club aren't quite ready to start meeting wholesale orders just yet,

"We probably couldn't do a huge order of 100 items but I don't think we would want to because then we wouldn't be doing it for our enjoyment, which is why we started the club."

9902HD0309. Amanda Westlake at the KaBle Club.

Photo: HELEN DRAKE