WHILE most people were fast asleep at 4am this morning, a group of villagers in Aldbourne were secretly yarn bombing trees, benches and anything else they could get their hands on.

The pond area in the middle of the village has been decorated with all sorts of colourful knitted creations, to the surprise and delight of residents, as part of celebrations for Aldbourne’s 100th carnival taking place next Saturday.

The group of hard-working knitters have spent months clicking away their needles to transform the area and can now see the fruits of the labour.

Originally the group had just wanted to do the bus shelter “but it just snowballed from there,” said Lorraine Kimber.

“We had an extra special knit and natter meeting to talk about it and we have all been crocheting and knitting really hard ever since.”

Bunting, Mary Poppins and colourful themed benches, including a Christmas inspired one in memory of the late Chris Warrington, who was known as the village’s ‘Father Christmas’, are on show for people to see.

Even road and bus signs have been given a splash of colour thanks to the friendly graffiti. There are toad stools, owls and butterflies wrapped around trees, as well as pom-poms hanging from the railings, which youngsters from the knit and natter club at St Michael’s Primary School have made.

“We are thrilled, it has gone better than we could have hoped for,” Mrs Kimber, of Whitley Road added. “We started it just after Easter and we had enough wool by the beginning of July.

“About 16 people have been part of the project but we’ve had a lot of people that have donated wool and other little bits that we can use. It will stay up until after carnival, as long as it doesn’t get vandalised.”