A champion knitter desperate to retain his world record has created a 17-mile long rope.
Ted Hannaford, 72, started to make his rope after becoming concerned his wife Rita, 61, was wasting wool when she made Fair Isle jumpers.
Grandfather-of-six Ted made the Guinness Book of World Records in October 2011 for the longest french knitting measuring 16.36 miles – 26,329 metres.
But the human knitting machine never put down his needles and keen to beat Aussie knitter Leon Milich he has extended the rope to 17 and a quarter miles – or 27,842 metres – long.
It means knitting fanatic Ted has now been stitching his rope continuously since 1989 – a staggering 24 years.
Ted, a retired security guard from Sittingbourne, Kent, said: “I blame the wife for getting me in to knitting.
“I said to her she was wasting wool and she turned round and said ‘why don’t you do some’.
“I got started and I got hooked on it. I got to about two miles and thought I’d find if there was a world record for it.
“The man from the Guinness Book of World Records said there was a man in Australia doing it. That was it – I wanted to make sure I beat him.
“Now I average about one mile a year. Leon won’t tell me how long his rope is, but I think I am ahead of him.
“I have a picture of him by where I do the knitting and it spurs me on.”
Mother-of-three Rita said: “I told Ted he should knit and first of all he said ‘men don’t knit’, but he gave in eventually.
“At the last count I was three miles ahead of him.
“I’ve lost my dining room as there are two 6ft high boxes in there with the knitting. We now eat our dinners on our laps, but it’s worth it.”
French knitting is done on a spool with four nails to produce a narrow length of wool.
Ted’s rope has been viewed by mayor of Swale, Kent, Cllr Pat Sandle, and Cllr Gareth Randall who will officially record the latest measurement.
