‘Knitting ninjas’ gave a well-known statue a colourful new look

Keen knitters Andrea Ward, Anne-Marie Devlin and Yvonne Middleton created a woolly bobble hat and crocheted poncho for the sheep statue in the centre of Shipley.

The stunt marked World Knit and Crochet in Public Day on Saturday. The trio, who belong to Baildon Knitting Group, started knitting at 11.30am and finished assembling the outfit four hours later.

Ms Devlin said: "We were just trying to think of something fun we could do for the Knit and Crochet Day. Obviously, Shipley and Bradford were founded on the wool industry so what better way to celebrate that than give the sheep a woolly jumper back.

"We made knitted and crocheted squares, then made a poncho for the sheep and I knitted it a big bobble hat.

"We had a lot of people talking to us about it.

"A trio of knitting ninjas, we were called. That's what somebody said to us as we were putting the stuff on. I said I quite liked that.

"We are doing it again next year, so we had a few people saying they would join us next year. We are hoping to 'yarn bomb' the band stand at Roberts Park.

"We will be doing squares, bunting, flowers - whatever people want to knit and crochet, we will find a way of sticking it on."

The women had to get the permission of Bradford Council before giving the statue its new look.

Ms Devlin said: "It's classed as vandalism unless you have got permission to do it. I thought, the last thing I wanted was to get arrested."