An unusually dramatic mission is occupying the busy fingers of Thanet knitters who have a part to play in murder spoof Inspector Norse at Margate's Theatre Royal on Friday.

It is not knitting scarves, jumpers or socks currently keeping their industrious needles clicking incessantly.

They are creating part of the set for LipService’s Inspector Norse, a self-assembly Swedish crime thriller with a comic twist.

Knitting at the Albion is a Broadstairs-based knitting group participating in the project during their weekly meetings at the Royal Albion Hotel.

One task for members for the play has been knitting a vase of flowers. They have also created a cobweb, complete with spider, and are thoroughly enjoying the novel challenge.

The group are no strangers to extraordinary knitting and are practised hands at “yarn bombing”, a kind of knitting graffiti, using coloured yarn rather than chalk or paint to create street art.

They are practised at such arts as decorating trees and making pumpkins.

Other Thanet knitting groups contributing to Inspector Norse include Stitch and Bitch of Westgate and Jenny Duff’s Knitter Knit Knit Knit.

Inspector Norse features female heroine Detective Inspector Sandra Larsson, wearing an iconic knitted jumper of course, and involves a former popstar recluse who discovers a body in her remote farmhouse. The show was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

There is a mounting body count, a suspect troll, Nordic walking and a drunken moose - all part of the action.

The show is at 7.30pm on Friday Novemer 29. Tickets are £16, £14 (Friends) or £10 (restricted view and under 25s), call 01843 292795/296111.