More than a dozen babies and young children will be helped to stay warm this winter thanks to 20 members of Redbourn Women’s Institute and their friends.

For the past six months, the group have been knitting six inch by six inch squares from new and surplus wool to create multi-coloured blankets, and the result of their efforts was presented to The Vineyard Care Centre on Wednesday, October 30.

The knitters worked at home to a pattern supplied, before collaborating in two sessions to sew the squares into three different sizes of blankets.

Acting president of Redbourn WI Susan David said: "Lots of us have spare wool lying around from other items we have knitted and it seemed a pity for it to be unused when it could be put to good use."

"We also enjoyed getting together to discuss the project and make the blankets up. We are now planning our next steps."