Alison Lawton, 80, of Ashburton knits up relaxation and joy whenever she picks up her needles.
The rest home resident makes toy dolls, teddy bears and cats, to give away to others.
‘‘I enjoy that it relaxes me beautifully. I’m in a real happy place, especially knitting toys more so than a garment, because it’s the shaping that keeps my mind working.’’
One of her girl toys, she named Joy ‘‘because it gave me so much joy to knit her’’.
She follows knitting patterns to make the toys. She said shaping involved following the pattern and casting on and off the needles after the required number of stitches.
Once the knitted part of the toys is done, Alison uses a dacron stuffing to fill them out.
For the past 10 years, Alison has given more than 50 of the knitted toys to the Ashburton Hospital maternity ward, so mums can take them home for their babies.
Alison is herself a grandmother, and a retired farmer from Elgin.
She said she had been knitting since she was 20, and was taught by her grandmother.
‘‘I came from a big family, and since my nieces and nephews started having babies, I knitted toys to give the new babies.’’
