Wool-ympic post box tribute is a topper

The topper on day one (left) only had a few medals but there were 65 by the end of the Games

A keen crocheter has been paying her own dynamic tribute to the GB teams at the Olympics and Paralympics.

Julie Knowles from Rushden, Northamptonshire, has made a post box topper which she has been updating with each day's medal haul.

She has now created 189 medals to match the total won in both events.

The post box is outside Waitrose in the town and Ms Knowles said she has been there so often in the last few weeks that people think she works there.

Ms Knowles said she had always admired post box toppers and made her first one for the late Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.

Then, she "came up with the idea of crocheting every medal that they've won and updating the post box topper every morning.

"So I did the Olympics, which I absolutely loved, 65 medals - fantastic!"

To start with, medals were grouped beneath individual labels for each sport, but the tally became so high that the medals were grouped by colour.

Then came the next challenge: "When I said I'll obviously be doing the Paralympics, someone said to me 'you do realise they'll get about double the medals?'

"I went 'pardon?'"

From just a handful on day one, the topper grew to 124 medals during the Paralympics

She then crocheted a Paralympics logo for the top of the topper to replace the five Olympic rings, and started filling it up with medals again as athletes such as Hannah Cockcroft and Sabrina Fortune claimed their victories.

She said: "Some of the customers actually think I work there!"

With Team GB collecting so many medals, she ran out of thread and had to spend the weekend going from shop to shop to find more.

With the Paralympics now over, the topper will be moved to a new position in the Happy Mondays coffee shop in Rushden and customers will be invited to donate to the British Paralympic Association.