WOOL YOU BELIEVE IT?

KNITTERS’ CREATIONS INCLUDE A VEG BASKET, FISH AND CHIPS AND STRAWBERRIES

- By TELEGRAPH REPORTER

Knitters' creations include a veg basket, fish and chips and strawberries

THE beautifully intricate and tactile knitted vegetable basket could easily be mistaken for part of a baby’s playthings.

Carrots, leeks, tiny tomatoes on the vine and even cabbages have been crafted out of wool, but it won’t be little children who delight in them. These vegetables are part of a memory box of garden-themed items used by occupational therapists in their work with dementia patients.

They have been developed by members of staff at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust who have been hard at work sourcing items from charity shops, donations from friends and family and from a Facebook-based knitting group to create the boxes.

The boxes are cared for by the trust’s librarians, Marie Hickman and Emma Bayliss.

Marie said: "We knew of other trusts who had them, and Emma was particularly keen to take on the project, so we started collecting things. We have done it on a shoestring budget, with a lot donated by the Hookers and Clickers knitting group.

"We tell them the themes we want and the next thing we know, they've created these beautiful things!"