Cloughmills, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is a picturesque small town. It's become even more so since the local crochet club took on a project of recreating the entire village in miniature, with stunning accuracy. All in crocheted or knitted yarn.
Local resident May Aitcheson started the club six years ago. Now, it has 30-odd members, most of whom are retired. “I didn’t realize it would keep going the way it’s done,” she told the BBC. In May of last year the members got together to begin work on the mammoth model of their village. They headed out first with cameras, and then began to craft the houses and other buildings, with six women in particular doing much of the work. They even created a few sites that no longer exist, including the old shirt factory where many of the members once worked. They finished the project in September.
The scene includes people, animals, garden plants, and other accessories. It has become so large that moving it out of Memorial Orange Hall is more trouble than anyone wants to tackle. But the incredible project has drawn worldwide attention to Cloughmills. See the yarn village up close and from all angles at Atlas Obscura.
(Image courtesy of Audrey Aitcheson)