Northern Ireland

Schoolboy teaches himself to crochet in lockdown

Daniel Simms (10) from Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
Daniel Simms (10) from Newtownabbey, County Antrim. Daniel Simms (10) from Newtownabbey, County Antrim.

A COAntrim schoolboy, who made the most of lockdown by mastering the traditional craft of crocheting, is to auction off his impressive creations.

Daniel Simms has always been creative, but the speed at which he picked up the complicated craft has stunned even seasoned professionals.

The 10-year-old from Newtownabbey is completely self taught, having made dozens of complicated animals and mythical creatures from yarn by following YouTube videos.

Carol Magill said her son's love of crochetings had helped him through lockdown and the disappointment of missing school friends and his other usual after school activities.

"Both me and Daniel have asthma and my husband is an essential worker so we were being extra careful, Ms Magill said.

"He did learn to ride his bike during lockdown as well, but as I work it was great when he had a project to work on to keep him busy.

"He started with small projects such as keyrings but he has got more ambitious as time has gone on.

"The sitting room is now full of crochet creations. He's currently working on a dragon that's about 5ft long.

"He taught himself watching YouTube and then taught himself to read patterns, he's always been creative and buying wool is much cheaper than buying video games", she said.

Earlier this month, Daniel's scout-leader Beverly Fisher, from Whitehouse Scout Group passes away from cancer.

While the scouts couldn't attend her service due to the coronavirus pandemic they formed a guard of honour outside the church. It was this that prompted Daniel to want to sell some of his crocheted animals to raise money for Cancer Focus.

"Beverly was such lovely lady and because of her Daniel wanted to auction his two NHS bears for charity, and we've also set up a JustGiving page in memory of her", she added.