Now that's a real purl-y Queen! Royal fan, 75, spends 500 hours knitting elaborate recreation of the Jubilee river pageant



A patriotic great-grandmother has spent more than 500 hours and used over 4,500ft of yarn knitting a woolly version of the Queen’s Jubilee river pageant.

Sheila Carter cast-on every day for four and a half months to complete the Royal tribute before Her Majesty casts off for her landmark occasion next month.

The metre-long woollen creation shows the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh sitting on their thrones as their barge cruises down the Thames.

Hard work: Mrs Carter puts the finishing touches to the tribute, comprised of an estimated 1.8million stitches and about 30 different shades of wool

Incredibly, Mrs Carter completed her masterpiece despite never having visited London. Yet, even down to the final touch, she said she tried to make everyone as lifelike as possible.

She said: 'The most difficult part was probably getting the shape of the barge right, I just guessed using pictures.'

Mrs Carter is not new to woolly works of art - for the Royal Wedding she knitted a 3ft tall wedding cake with Prince William and Kate perched on top.

She's got form: Mrs Carter with her last creation, a wooly wedding cake to celebrate the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last year



