A little rainbow of woollen-sheathed feet is pattering around many of Motueka’s local schools each winter, thanks to the many hours donated by local knitters.
Faith Wells must have completed many thousands of woollen slippers in recent years, keeping our local school kids snuggly warm. She is the central contact for many of the schools’ knitting needs, taking orders and calling in help from friends and family to complete them.
The 87-year-old has been knitting since she was seven, learning at her mother’s knee. She knitted her first cardigan when she was 10, and as a teenager, she crafted a sleeveless pullover for her boyfriend. Nowadays, she can finish off about two pairs of slippers in front of an evening’s television shows.
“Some of the stitching I can just do with my eyes shut.”
She has also started doing mittens – 103 pairs so far this year - after requests from the schools, and all for free.
Some schools let the children take the items home at the end of winter, and others kept them for the following year. Either was fine with Faith – the main thing is that the children are cozy.
“I don’t want thanks, but it’s lovely to know that they’ve got warm hands and warm feet.”
Maureen spent 10 years at the helm of Motueka’s Operation Cover-Up – a community knitting collaboration that crafted and dispatched blankets, teddies and clothing to orphanages in Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. The group was gathering 300 blankets per year by the end of her tenure.
“I met some wonderful ladies. I had half of Motueka knitting for me in those days,” she says.
“It just grew and grew over the years – it was very rewarding.”
After eight decades wielding her needles, Faith reckons that she “won’t give up until my fingers won’t let me”.
Most of her knitting is done with acrylic wool, which is affordable, warm and hard-wearing, says the expert knitter. She welcomes donations of double-knit wool, which can be dropped into the Red Cross op shop with her name on it.
