We love: The knitted Olympics

knitted Bradley Wiggins and friendly corgi

We are full of excitement here at TWR about tonight’s opening ceremony and wish Team GB the very best as the Olympics kick off this evening.

London’s retail store windows have been amazingly creative with their Olympic displays, but frankly none have made me smile as much as my local knitting shop, Creations, in Barnes. its Olympic window feature knitted athletes in settings that are wonderfully detailed and utterly charming. The store has been building something of a reputation for knitted celebrations, those of you who follow us on twitter and Instagram may remember the knitted Royal Jubilee windows, which were a hoot and we’ve featured the knitted Nativity before.

The knitted Olympics window, according to shop worker Ellen who organises the displays, took four months to organise, from planning which athletes to feature to hand cutting out the 200 tiny-but-accurate flags to use as a backdrop. Local knitters volunteered to help and everyone does it for love, ‘there’s no money going anywhere!’ Ellen told us. “My friend Trisha is the art director with me as co-pilot” she continued, “we spend far too much time on it but we both have the same sense of humour and want to make people smile as they go by”.

The knitting patterns come from Knitting For Gold which the store has now completely sold out of, and the wool was excess donated by regular shop customers. The non-Olympic corgis which cheerfully feature alongside the athletes are left over from the knitted Jubilee window display earlier in the year, which was another hit with local residents.

Ellen has been pressured to sell the athletes, but not many of the knitters are keen to part with their creations, ‘They are our babies!’ claims Ellen, who still has The Queen and Prince Phillip from the Jubilee window behind the till in the store.

So what will the pair do next now they’ve had such a year of knitted window excitement? “Oh that’s it for a while,” said Ellen, “my grandchildren are over for the summer and Trisha is busy too so we’ll have a break now’.

The archer is absolutely my favourite, I love her expression and the footballer is in orange because Ellen is from Holland.

Beach volley ball including knitted net and big knitted knickers!

Bradley Wiggins takes sentre stage after his big win at the Tour de France

Don’t you love the random corgis? It’s impossible not to smile when you go passed the window.

Weight lifting and Judo, love the movement…

Gymnastics and tennis, Ellen knitted the tennis figure, which she modelled on that popular 70s poster.

The athletes working hard, and below the complete window. Go see it if you live close to Barnes High Street, it’s there until the end of the end of the Paralympics in September.