Charity knitters from Harrogate are going the egg-stra mile this Easter to raise money in support of Yorkshire’s growing number of unpaid carers.
For they have turned the Tour de Yorkshire into the Tour de Yoke-shire as they adopt a cycling theme to their annual fund-raiser.
Each year, the Carers’ Resource charity teams up with Cadbury’s to knit Easter chick covers for the chocolate giant’s famous crème eggs.
The aim is to generate funds for sharing across its offices in Harrogate, Ripon, Shipley and Skipton in an eye-catching manner.
And to mark Yorkshire hosting Le Grand Depart of the Tour de France in July, the class of 2014 features chick covers modelled on the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
The collection also depicts the iconic yellow jersey and the hallmark red polka dotted shirt traditionally worn by the “King of the Mountain”.
Anne Wells, Events and Fund-Raising Coordinator for the charity, said it was hoped that the chick covers would prove a souvenir with a difference ahead of the Tour coming to the county.
Anne said: Thanks to our volunteers, we have knitted more than 1,800 covers this year in all sorts of styles and colours many of them based on the Tour de Yorkshire.
They will be sold at our four offices as well as businesses, schools and other supporters in the community to raise much-needed funds for us.
We like to have a particular theme each year and with the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire for probably the only time in our lives, there was really only one pattern our knitters wanted to be saddled with!
We hope, like Le Tour, the chicks capture the Yorkshire public’s imagination and help us extend the range of advice and support we offer those in our community who look after a loved one.
Main photograph (from left) charity “Tour de Yoke-shire” knitters Louise Flint, Angela Lloyd-Roberts and Lucy Tiffany
*Yolk