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Tuesday, 10 December 2024

Goodness, that's a very large Christmas Jumper!

Yorkshire knitters make a Christmas jumper... for a gritter!


Many shops, supermarkets and schools hold a Christmas jumper day ... in fact many have a Christmas Jumper month! But this story is a little different because it's about a gritter wearing a jumper!
Yes really 😊 read on for more ...

A group of knitters have spent 4500 hours making a Christmas jumper for.... their gritter called Goldie. The gritter's job is to spread salt onto roads and pavements to stop them from getting too icy when it's freezing outside.

And now, Goldie is going on tour - it will travel 900 miles around the UK and visit lots of schools along the way. 
Goldie's school tour will aim to teach kids about winter safety and road maintenance.

Goldie's jumper and hat were put together by the Ripon Community Poppy Project.

Econ Engineering, the company that owns the gritter, said they were excited to be able to keep their vehicle warm this winter.

The jumper is a whopping 896 square feet - over half the size of an Olympic swimming pool! Stuart Martin, from the volunteer group, said: "We didn’t realise it was going to be this big!" It was put together by 35 volunteers over the course of a year, and used 1130 balls of wool. 

When the project started there was a bit of confusion. "We thought we’d be doing 26 jumpers for all these gritter workers, not a wagon," explained Hazel, one of the group organisers. "But it’s been great"
Words and image from story seen here


Do you wear Christmas Jumpers?
I quite like this cheerful one 😊🎅🎄🤶

All the best Jan

32 comments:

Tom said...

...thanks, I learned about jumpers and gritters!

peppylady (Dora) said...

First and second grade lot of girls wore jumpers.

Mari said...

I can't imagine all that work! It's really fun and the kids will enjoy it and learn too.

Christine said...

Cute truck!

My name is Erika. said...

This is one giant sweater, but what fun!

contempladoraocidental.blogspot.com said...

wow. that involved a lot of work.

J.P. Alexander said...

Uy es muy grande. Te mando un beso.

Angie's Recipes said...

My husband does, but I don't. Happy Holidays, Jan.

Elephant's Child said...

That is a LOT of work (and wool). The gritter looks v stylish though.

Granny Marigold said...

Wow! That is the biggest knitted project I have ever seen.

Margaret D said...

That is a large jumper Jan.

Rustic Pumpkin said...

must be all that tea they drink . . . and the Fat Rascals!
Stay warm! Debbie

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I'm glad you explained what a gritter is. Your "jumper" looks like a sweater to me.

Ananka said...

I saw that in the news. I thought it was pretty cool :-D

eileeninmd said...

Wow, that is a large jumper, it is cute!
Take care, have a great day!

Lee said...

What a fun post...I really enjoyed this....and the massive jumper for Gritter is all for a very good cause.

No Christmas jumpers worn here....far too hot for that. The less worn the better at present! :)

DrumMajor said...

I just love reading about terms for things in other countries. Ok, we have knitted Christmas sweaters, so that seems to be a jumper. We have many snow plows and icing trucks in Kansas City, usually the same vehicle. The metro area started contests with elementary schools to give the snow plows goofy names, and the names were painted on the front of the plow blade. Looks like your's will stay warm as it's touring around. Linda in Kansas

Shari Burke said...

You know that this yarn addict loves this story :-) Thanks for the smiles!

José Antonio Sánchez Rumí said...

Su trabajo tiene y sus horas hasta tejer esa prenda.
Saludos

Lisabella Russo said...

Oh my goodness, that's incredible! I don't tend to wear them, but I love looking at them.

Crafty Green Poet said...

That's fun! I like all the names the gritters have too,

Bill said...

Big and impressive.

Linda said...

No sweaters ever for me.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde de terça-feira, com muita paz e saúde. Como não temos um inverno tão rigoroso, como de vocês, principalmente em algumas cidades do Rio de Janeiro. Confesso que nunca usei. E o verão está pertinho. Uns 10 ou 11 dias.

Mary Kirkland said...

It's a very nice one.

Debbie said...

knitters are awesome people, i happen to know quite a few!! i wear christmas colors but not usually a christmas sweater. i would knit one but sweaters are a lot of work for me. one was enough!!

HappyK said...

Wow that is some knitting project!!!
I didn't realize a jumper is what we call a sweater.

Rose said...

That was a lot of work and a lot of yarn!

Lorrie said...

That's an enormous piece of knitting! I don't wear Christmas jumpers (sweaters, we call them here).

Conniecrafter said...

wow I can not imagine knitting that big of a project, that is so impressive and neat. Yes I have two Christmas sweaters :)

aussie aNNie said...

Wow, stunning
this is amazing! ♥

Dee Kissinger said...

Holy cow!!! THAT is a lot of knitting. Sounds like they had a good time doing it though.

I do not have a Christmas jumper, but I do have two winter sweatshirts. One has embroidered owls with hats and scarves and the other has deer and evergreen trees done in silver thread (on a light blue shirt). They aren't so Christmassy that I couldn't wear them throughout the cold weather season.