FAST fingered knitters have managed to knit 1,500 dolls for disadvantaged children already this year.

As part of Knitting on the Edge, a sub group of the Edge Festival, volunteers across the community, including knitting groups, schools clubs and individuals, knitted 1,500 Izzy dolls from wool donated by the people of Tavistock during a wool amnesty. The dolls were on display throughout the town and the Bedford Hotel in particular, during the Tavistock Edge Festival in July.

The dolls are now on their way to their new homes.

The first step on their journey is to be sent to London to International Health Partners (IHP), a UK charity which works to improve health outcomes across the world by co-ordinating the donation of medical products from the healthcare industry to go to people with no access to medicine.

IHP takes donations of millions of doses of life-saving medicines from companies every year, which they use to respond to disasters, support long term healthcare projects and also equip travelling UK medics with essential supplies. They do this with doctors’ travel packs.

Each travel pack weighs about 26kg and can treat about 800 adults and children. The Tavistock Izzy dolls will also go into the packs and will go around the world to provide comfort to children who have often lost everything.

A number of larger knitted dolls are also being sent to Knit for Peace to provide comfort to children in need.

In addition to the dolls, Knitting on the Edge also co-ordinated the knitting of more than 250 twiddle muffs which will help those suffering with dementia. They will now be taken to Hembury Ward at Derriford Hospital and also a number of other local care and nursing homes.

A spokesperson for the organisers of Knitting on the Edge said: ‘We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who participated in this fantastic achievement. To all the donors of wool, the knitters, the shops and businesses who so generously supported the event and the town trail and to International Health Partners.

‘There will be more fun and fantastically worthwhile knitting to get involved in next year!’