A GROUP of pensioners have hit on a novel money- making scheme, and all in a good cause.

Residents of Fern Court, a sheltered housing scheme in East Street, Bexleyheath, have pooled their creative talents to try and raise cash for Greenwich and Bexley Cottage Hospice.

The eight women came up with the idea of knitting outfits for toy dolls after chatting with veteran fundraiser Beryl Bains, who raises cash for a variety of good causes.

Friends and family have been seeking out dolls, big and small, from jumble sales, charity shops and every other source, and provided snippets of wool, old jumpers to be unravelled and odd buttons and ribbons, to provide the knitting circle with materials.

Every afternoon at about 5pm the group meets for a communal "knit-in" but they also knit on their own, sometimes working to knitting patterns, or making them up themselves.

The result will be a spectacular array of dressed dolls on the Dolls Orphanage stall at the hospice's fun day on July 13 at Bostall Heath.

None of the dolls will be priced, instead offers will be invited from the public.