Christine Knowles knows just how special it is to have someone pick up a needle and thread on her behalf. Growing up, her three older sisters used to fight over the privilege of knitting their young sibling her next jersey.
Now, the Motueka local is the one wielding the tools, as a recent recruit to the Motueka repair cafe’s volunteer base.
As a life-long knitter, sewer and darner, Christine will try her hand with almost any fabric. She is happy to sew patches, darn threadbare cloth and take on general repairs. She even does repairs on plush toys and dolls.
She explains that some people want mending that is as invisible as possible, while others are happy to have to repairs that tell the story of the garment’s life.
“A lot of it is about listening to what the customer wants,” she says.
Like all repair cafe volunteers, Christine values the conservation aspect of repairing items, as well as the happiness brought to customers by restoring their treasured items. She sources her wool and thread from thrift stores and donations from individuals, which fits perfectly with the repair cafe ethos of a sustainable, circular economy.
Christine also upholds the repair cafe principle of teaching customers to do their own repairs. She mended one appreciative young man’s Swanndri bush shirt by darning the holes and worn areas with some matching wool.
He watched Christine and discussed the process with her, and she gave him some matching wool to take home so he could do any subsequent mending himself.
Older customers often know how to do such repair work, but for a range of reasons they are no longer able to undertake these tasks themselves.
One elderly customer at a recent cafe commented, “Thank you, this is marvellous, these are small jobs I can’t do any more”.
When the damaged item holds a lot of emotional significance to the customer, their obvious delight at a fix warms everyone’s hearts.
Vivid in her memory is the recent repair of a woollen vest that a widower’s wife had knitted for him many years ago.
“It was so amazing to be a part of that,” she says.
Some of Christine’s other repair cafe mending jobs have included a moth-eaten suit jacket and the woven tops of a pair of women’s shoes.
She appreciates that many people in the community can’t afford to get professional fixes done, especially when it is often cheaper to buy a replacement.
Motueka Repair Cafe is on at 10am-1pm on the third Saturday of each month (February-November), at Te Noninga Kumu-Motueka Library. Free refreshments are provided. The next cafe is to be held this Saturday, 19 October.
