Aberdeen businesswoman hopes Queen will see her knitted portrait

A young woman from Aberdeen is hoping the Queen will see a knitted portrait she's made as part of her knitting business.

Lucy Fisher, 26, is the co-founder of ‘Knit It’ which was set up during lockdown in the hope of inspiring young people to get involved with "a sustainable hobby and get knitting". 

She took up knitting with her grandma during her childhood, and now offers ‘KnitPics’, which allows knitters of any level to knit a photo to life.  

"The thing I found difficult about knitting was patterns, they're still quite stuck in the past, quite traditional, compared to how the rest of the world has modernised, digitalised, with there being apps for everything. And I thought: 'how can we make knitting more exciting for young people, how can we make it easier and in a language they can understand?

"One day it just popped into my head, that actually there's a new way we can do this. We can re-invent knitting and get more young people to pick it up."

There have been requests to create knitted portraits of celebrities such as Ant and Dec, Lorraine Kelly, and the cast of Line of Duty.  

The business has since gained support from knitting-fanatic and Olympic diver Tom Daley, who reposted his ‘KnitPic’ onto his Instagram.  

She said: "It was surreal, it was honestly amazing. I went to sleep with 300 views and woke up with 300,000. I just couldn't believe it.

"To get support from somebody who understands the benefits of knitting, like, Tom does it because of the love for it. And for him to recognise what we're trying to do was absolutely brilliant."

Lucy’s latest project ahead of the Platinum Jubilee is a hand-knitted portrait of Her Majesty The Queen.  

"We hope maybe the Queen will see it," she said. "So, if anyone can help make it viral that would be fab."

Knit It was kick-started by the Young Innovator Awards, a yearly programme that allows 100 young entrepreneurs to be supported for 12 months, benefitting from £5,000, as well as one-on-one business support. 

However, Lucy’s successful knitting venture has been shortlisted for an additional £50,000.