Knit and Natter
Our Knit and Natter group at Summerdyne gives a wonderful friendship group, through a shared love of knitting. They suggest lots of projects, often as fundraisers, for charities or the resident’s fund at Summerdyne. You may recall their knitted poppies which we sold in our reception and they raised £26 for the British Legion.
Our ladies work so hard on these projects, with fabulous results and a huge sense of pride and achievement. We thought they deserved an article of their own, so you could read more about some of them.
Barbara Peterson
Barbara has been knitting for 81 years, so is incredibly talented with very nimble fingers. Her mother taught her to knit aged 5 and her first knitted items were white cotton squares for wiping chalk blackboards.
Barbara was 7 at the outbreak of World War II and wool and clothing were rationed during the war years and until 1949. She recalls how hard it was to find wool and cycled many miles around the Midlands trying to find some. She found some red skeins, which she wound into balls and made into a jumper. Barbara knitted many clothing items, from jumpers to sock, but also toys, as they were too expensive to buy. The first toy she knitted was a duck for her cousin.
She fondly remembers a knitting book her mother had, with patterns for everything you wanted to knit. Barbara has enjoyed knitting all her life, making school jumpers for her son and daughter and then baby clothes for her grandchildren. She has been a member of the Wribbenhall Knit and Natter Group for many years and continues to visit her friends there now she lives at Summerdyne. Nowadays, she says its more about the Natter than the Knit!
Off to Knit and Natter
Barbara Peterson knitting Easter chicks
Barbara making Valentines hearts
Judith Simonds
Judith also started to knit when she was 5 years old. She taught herself to knit and used to make rugs on a loom, that they used around their home. She recalls staying up till midnight to get the rugs made. Now Judith likes to knit for pleasure, simpler items such as scarfs and loves pom-pom making. She has enjoyed our Valentines activity, winding wool around cardboard hearts and sewing on buttons and beads.
Judith Simons making a Valentines heart
Joyce Jones
Joyce is the eldest of 6 children and started knitting aged 9. Her mother didn’t have time to knit and it became Joyce’s job to knit clothes for the family, something she really enjoyed to do. Joyce was incredibly fast at knitting – she could knit a ball a night. She does not recall a problem finding wool during the War years as local shop owners knew her well and used to put wool aside for her. Joyce then knitted for her own children. She remembers a time when her son was so pleased with a knitted pull-over, he asked for a whole collection and she made one in every colour!
Joyce is now 95 and sadly her wrist is too painful for much knitting, but she loves the knitting group and seeing the projects being worked on. A couple of months ago she made her first pom-pom, which she was very proud of.
The Knit and Natter Easter project
Our ladies have decided for Easter to make some Easter chicks. There has been quite a production line, as you can see from the pictures below of Betty Mountford, another of our nimble fingered knitters. By mid January, 25 chicks were already finished. Some have been stuffed to become gorgeous soft toys or Easter decorations. Others neatly fit a Cadbury’s Creme Egg inside! A perfect Easter treat!
The Easter Knit and Natter project
We have all had a lot of fun doing this. One knitting session, everyone was sharing knitting stories about wearing knitted bathing costumes, which produced much laughter. We also had the music on and sometimes singing along to Sir Tom Jones was more important than wool winding.
Thank you
The Midlands Co-operative Food in Bewdley, donated a whole box of Creme Eggs so we could complete our Easter project. A huge thank you to them.
Thank you as well to St Anne’s C of E Primary School, Bewdley, who are kindly selling our Easter chicks in their school reception, to fundraise for our resident’s fund. We have a lovely relationship with St Anne’s here at Summerdyne. The children enthralled our residents at Christmas with their carol singing. “Lovely children” and “just beautiful” were two of the comments from our residents, who love seeing the children.
Sarah Beard, our activities coordinator, yesterday dropped off all the Easter chicks and there is a huge basket in the school reception selling for £1 each. Our knitting ladies are delighted the children will be enjoying the knitted chicks and Creme Eggs!
Reception at St Annes Primary
Behind every knitter is a huge ball of yarn…..
And we went right back to the source of (some!) yarn, with a visit from three alpacas last week. Dave, Shah and Brownleigh visited all of our residents in the lounge and conservatory and then Shah ventured upstairs, to meet other residents in their rooms. He took the lift, much to the amusement of our residents and staff!
Alpacas
An alpaca in a residents room!
An alpaca in the lift!
If you ever have any leftover yarn from a knitting project, we welcome any donations of wool and craft materials. Knitting and crafting bring so much joy to our residents and any wool you have would be hugely appreciated.