The Museum of Dartmoor Life’s has been working with the Chagford Memory Cafe to create a memory blanket for the cafe-goers as part of the museum’s “Dyeing on Dartmoor” exhibition.

Members were provided with a set of knitting needles and a ball of pure new wool which Kristy Turner -the museum’s curator - and Jill Smallcombe had naturally dyed using local Dartmoor wild plants such as oak, brambles, nettles and elder, using the same technique as past Dartmoor residents would have done.

Everyone was asked to knit a simple square measuring 15cmx15cm) square but the results came in all shapes and sizes, so Laura Bowden, of the Woolly Beader shop in Okehampton, blocked them by wetting and stretching them to similar sizes.

Every knitter was provided with a luggage label to attach to their square, on which to write their name and something that made them happy and another label with the details of the dye used on it. A few of the squares were knitted on behalf of, or in memory of, someone else.

Some knitters had never knitted before and learnt a new skill while others thought they had forgotten how to knit, but muscle memory brought it all back.

Everyone loved creating their squares and knitting with local wool dyed from local wild plants. This natural dyeing was done in the autumn and the resulting colours were much softer than the colours that had been created in the spring.

“Dyeing on Dartmoor” closes on November 4.