Thursday, 22 September 2011

Royal fan spends two months KNITTING a wedding cake for him and Kate

This wedding cake took two months of painstaking work to complete - and it is not even edible.

Royal fan Sheila Carter spent hours every day knitting the three-tiered creation in homage to Kate Middleton and Prince William's nuptials on April 29.

The 'cake' has taken more than 100,000 stitches and has around 300 hand sewn flowers adorning white woolly 'icing'.

Its three tiers are topped by the fabric version of Prince William and his fiance Kate Middleton.
Mrs Carter, a retired greengrocer, spent three hours each day creating and adding the final touches to the imitation confectionary.

The 74-year-old great grandmother, from Southampton, Hants, said the work had been a labour of love which took 400 hours.
She said: 'I've been doing it for about three hours a day. My husband's moaning that he hasn't had a cooked meal for weeks.

'I'm a huge fan of the Royal family, especially when Diana was around, and I think William and Kate make a lovely couple.

'I've knitted lots of cakes before for my granddaughters to play with and I just thought "I'm going to knit a wedding cake one day".

'When I started I hadn't really thought about who would be on top but then the engagement was announced I thought it would perfect for William and Kate.'
Three boxes were used as bases for the cake tiers, before being covered with white woolly 'icing' and each flower was individually knitted and sewn on.

Sheila said she has tried to make the couple on the cake as life-like as possible.
She added: "It's not based on a pattern, I just made it up.

'There must be about 300 flowers and that's what really took the time. I should think in each little flower there's probably a couple of hundred stitches.'

Mrs Carter has knitted everything from birthday cakes to a cauliflower for her seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild to play with.