Shanghai grannies knit love and pride into Olympic bouquets

When Olympic champions at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games are handed their customary bouquets on the medal stand, no one will be prouder than Shanghai pensioner Mou Guoying.

She and around 150 others -- mostly elderly women -- have spent the past three months painstakingly crocheting the wool-yarn roses that will become the centrepieces of the medallists' posies.

"I'm sure that when I see the athletes holding the bouquets, wearing the medals, and then taking them to their countries, I'll feel very proud in my heart and very happy," said the octogenarian.

The women have produced 4,400 roses -- meant to symbolise the blossoming careers of the successful athletes -- for more than 1,200 bunches of flowers.

A woollen version was chosen because, unlike a perishable real bouquet, it can serve as a lifelong keepsake.

The pensioners are part of a crafting club at an activity centre for women and children that has become known nationally for its members' skills. 

Those skills are evident in the finished product, a long metal stem wrapped in green yarn sprouting leaves on the way up to exquisite, tightly clustered crimson rose petals.

Before the Olympics, the women spent much of their time making high quality sweaters, socks, scarfs, hats and even whole dresses for charitable associations, which were typically then donated to the needy to help them through China's chilly winter. 

A range of government organisations and businesses also routinely commission the club to create various items as gifts.