JUST in case Princess Charlotte gets cold toes, the good knitters in Abbeyfield houses across Britain have been busily knitting squares to make her an extra blanket. It has been sewn together, and the finishing touches put to it, at Abbeyfield's Ilkley Society day centre, in the West Yorkshire & the Dales diocese.

The idea to make the royal baby a blanket came from the Abbeyfield "knit and natter" clubs that take place in many of the charity's houses. They are intended to keep the residents active, and to encourage friendships and conversation. The manager of the Ilkley Society day centre, Alice Wild, says that people who come to the centre from the community in Wharfedale, Ilkley, Menston, and Burley really took the baby-blanket project to their hearts.

"Older people love babies," she says, "and, as well as the chance to catch up with friends and take part in a fun social activity, it's given people the opportunity to talk about when their own families were small, and to remember royal births in previous generations."