The country responsible for conquering Eurovision with orc rockers, inventing the sauna and oh yeah, Darude, always had the potential for more innovation in the music and leisure realm.

The Heavy Metal Knitting Championships have just taken place in Joensuu, a Finnish city bordering Russia. Unsurprisingly, the event was a world first.

On Thursday, performers with names like Woolfumes, 9” needles and of course, Heather McLaren, took to the stage to fuse darning with deafening noise in an exuberant display of costumes, physicality and head-banging.

Competitors from nine countries including the UK, Denmark, Russia, and Israel, rocked out with their needles out at the inaugural event.

‘Finland is the promised land of heavy metal music. There are 50 heavy metal bands per 100 000 Finnish citizens, which is astonishingly many and actually more than anywhere else in the whole world,’ reads the event website.

‘The number of needlework enthusiasts is equally high, as according to even the most modest estimates there are hundreds of thousands of people in Finland who are immersed various kinds of needlework crafts, knitting included.’

This year’s winner was the five-person Giga Body Metal group from Japan, who performed with sumo wrestlers and a kimono-clad man.

The next tournament is expected to take place next July, so there’s plenty of time to link your textiles queen of a grandmother your Slayer playlist, or train your Metallica-loving dad in the art of a demure chain stitch.

The entry requirements for this year’s competition were simple. Film yourself knitting to the track ‘Fight Or Die’ by Joensuu band Maniac Abducto for one minute, then wack it onto YouTube. You can watch the playlist of this year’s semi-finalist audition videos online.

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