One in a MILLION!
This week, we’re loving the adorable knits created by Jane List, 55, from Oxford. She said…
Looping the yellow wool around the needle, I counted my stitches. As the material grew longer, I could see my knitted creation coming to life.
It was none other than an adorable Easter chick, although it was only October!
I have to get ahead, I thought. Every year, my knitted creations were in high demand.
‘Shall I sew that one off for you?’ my aunt Jean, 89, asked.
Nodding, I passed her the finished chick before moving on to the next.
For me, knitting was a family affair and even more so, as all the money raised went to Sobell House Hospice in Oxfordshire.
Learning to knit from my nan Louisa when I was three years old, I continued to knit as a hobby into later life.
Even my mum Lily was a keen knitter – she was knitting for Sobell House Hospice long before I started in 2008.
So, it was only natural for me to follow in her footsteps.
Only in 2007, Mum fell ill with lung cancer, but she kept knitting during her treatment with me by her side.
‘If the time comes, I want to go to Sobell House,’ she told me. And so when Mum started deteriorating in 2011, she moved to Sobell House for just 24 hours.
The Sobell House team were so kind – setting up a bed for me bedside Mum, I spent those last precious moments with her before she passed away, aged 82, in 2011.
After Mum’s passing, I knew
I wanted to carry on Mum’s knitting legacy and give back to Sobell House.
So, I upped the production scale. While Mum used to knit around 50 chicks each Easter, now, I knit up to three hundred!
Selling them at Millets Farm, Lincoln Farm Caravan Park and Oxford Downs Cricket Club for £2 a pop – excluding my Christmas puddings, which are £3.50 – my total for Sobell House keeps on climbing upwards.
‘When are your Easter chicks coming back?’ our regular customers asked.
‘Don’t worry, I’ve already started on Easter!’ I tell them every January.
Knowing that my knits are in popular demand always makes me smile.
I’m so glad that all the money I’ve raised goes to a good cause and helps to keep Mum’s legacy alive, too.
Over the past year, Sobell House revealed that over my 15 years of knitting for them, I’ve helped raise £10,250.
Being given a certificate and thank you letter, I know that Mum would be proud.
And so I’ll keep on knitting for Sobell House for as long as I possibly can.
It never fails to egg-cite me!
She kept on knitting during her treatment