Women warm to world-record scarf

Women made the scarf from 100-yard long strips

A group of women who wanted to come up with an idea for charity have knitted a record-breaking scarf.

Hundreds of people from across the country supplied pieces for the huge muffler, which measures 25.68 miles long and was put together by the Broompark Women's Institute, County Durham.

One of the woollen strips for the scarf was even sent from a WI branch in Canada.

The scarf will eventually be made into blankets by inmates at nearby Low Newton Prison and will then be given to charities for the homeless.

Pauline Walden, who co-ordinated the record bid, said: "We were looking for a project and one of the members saw the record for the world's longest scarf and thought we could beat it.

Scarf facts

Each piece is 66 stitches wide and is made from double-knitting wool

To comply with record-breaking rules, the needles used must be number eight size

Each piece is about 14 inches square

Each yard weighs about 150 grams

"It has taken us about three years but we finally made it.

"People from all over the country have sent in pieces for the scarf."

When all the brightly-coloured woollen strips were gathered together, they were assembled into 100-yard lengths to make the scarf.

Mrs Walden said the previous world-record scarf was 20 miles long and was made by women in Potter's Bar, Hertfordshire.

She added: "The governor of Low Newton prison, Mike Kirby, verified the scarf's length and we are now waiting for confirmation from the Guinness Book of Records that our scarf was the longest ever."