Kaye Cuthbertson is knitting up a storm for babies and children living in war-stricken Ukraine.
The Timaru woman said she had always struggled to ‘‘sit and do nothing’’.
On one side of her favourite armchair she stored baby knitting — which she worked on during the day when she could concentrate — and on the other side she kept her night-time knitting.
The night-time knitting required less concentration, so her fingers could be kept busy while she watched television.
She had watched the growing conflict in Ukraine on the news, feeling for the residents of of the country.
She said it was a ‘‘futile’’ war.
‘‘Those beautiful buildings and homes all turned to rubble.’’
But when her collection started ‘‘mounting up’’, she set about finding a new home for them.
Originally, she put them for sale on Facebook for very affordable prices, but when they did not receive much interest she stopped.
In an attempt to get her creations to Ukraine, to provide some comfort for young children, she contacted a Facebook page which was helping the cause.
She was sent the details of a man in Christchurch who was sending a container up to Auckland.
When she dropped the package off, the man packing the container had a Ukrainian accent, which made her delivery feel ‘‘more real’’.
As the ports in Ukraine had been shut down — because of the conflict — the container would travel through Poland, arriving in Ukraine in October.
She was thankful the blankets she had knitted would arrive before winter descended.
Most of her patterns were sourced from the internet, made with the softest yarn, and instead of sewing buttons on for eyes she carefully stitched eyes on, so there would be no choking hazards.
She said she had sent ‘‘at least 50’’ dolls, teddies, rabbits and cats, along with babies’ blankets.
She said she was 12 years old when she started knitting.
Her first creation was a cardigan — the colour was labelled as ‘‘corn cob’’, which was a deep orange.
While her mother had tried to show her how toknit for years, she had not been able to comprehend it.
Yet, after she watched her aunty deftly knitting one day, ‘‘it just seemed to click’’.
