Organisers of a Welsh wool festival are asking skilled knitters across Burton and South Derbyshire to help create thousands of textile poppies to mark the anniversary of the end of World War One.

Wonderwool Wales, a Wool and Natural Fibre Festival in Wales, is asking the community of textile makers to come together and recreate the united determination of the WW1 volunteers.

The aim of the project is to produce a large-scale Curtain of Poppies at next year's festival, a wall of 887,858 knitted poppies to commemorate each person who died in the Great War.

Support has already been shown from local groups including Fradley Needlework and Craft Group and Fradley's Wednesday Welcome Group and Craft Group.

Knitters in action
Knitters in action

Poppies are needed by the end of the year, giving organisers and a team of volunteers enough time to string them all together. Knitting volunteers are invited to use a range of patterns available on the Wonderwool's website , where there are also patterns for anyone who prefers to crochet, weave or set a felt poppy.

The current poppy count stands at 6,495, and Curtain of Poppies organiser Jane Veevers, is urging everyone to get knitting.

She said: "With the National Memorial Arboretum on our doorstep, local people have remembrance close to their hearts.

"Making a textile poppy for this project offers the chance to contribute to an act of community remembrance which brings together people from all across the UK, just as knitting for the troops did 100 years ago.

"We would like to commemorate every person from the UK who died serving their country and that's a lot of poppies. Just to commemorate the men from Burton who were killed in WW1, we need at least 800, out of a total of 887,858 UK wide."

Those interested in contributing one or more poppies can send them to:

Curtain of Poppies
Wonderwool Wales Ltd
Graig-Fach Farm
Cross Ash
Abergavenny
Monmouthshire
NP7 8PD

For inquiries, please contact Jane: woolschool@wonderwoolwales.co.uk