General News
27 May, 2024
Stitch in time for the smallest of babies
The click-clack of knitting needles is like music to 90-year-old Hazel Ferris’s ears, as she continues making clothes for some of our community’s smallest and most vulnerable members.
Each month for the past five years or so, she has carefully and lovingly made an average of four cardigans/jackets, four beanies and four pairs of booties for babies born prematurely.
“Since I was eight, I’ve been knitting,” Mrs Ferris, who turns 91 in June, said.
Mrs Ferris attended Antwerp School and it was there her passion for sewing started.
“My lady teacher taught me to knit - my male teacher used to hit me on the legs because I couldn’t run as I have crooked feet and I would fall over,” she said.
“So that’s when my female teacher taught me to knit.”
Now, unable to walk well, it’s a craft and hobby Mrs Ferris still enjoys at home in Nhill.
“I can’t walk much so this gives me something to add to my life, and helps babies that are tiny,” she said.
Mrs Ferris will also occasionally knit beanies and gloves for cancer patients in Horsham.
She said knitting kept her brain, fingers and hands active.
“The knitting keeps my fingers going.”
“It helps with my arthritis too,” she said.
Mrs Ferris said donations of four-ply baby wool can be left at Horsham RSL for Barry Barnett, who will deliver them to her so she can continue her work.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has given buttons and wool, as wool is expensive now,” she said.
While knitting for neonatal and premature babies has many benefits for Mrs Ferris, it also benefits a number of families as they navigate a challenging time in their lives.
Horsham mum Dana Whitehead said her son, now four-years-old, was born before 25 weeks and weighed less than a packet of sugar.
“He was born at 24+4 weeks, 32cm long and head circumference 24cm, and was so extremely tiny that he unable to even wear clothes for many weeks,” Mrs Whitehead said.
“Once he could fit into clothes, any that we had prepared for him (7 and 6 x 0 clothes) were all still far too big.
“We were lucky enough to be in a hospital where there was a team of volunteers knitting different sizes and types of clothes for premmies.
These were the first items ever put on my little boy at around eight weeks old.”
Mrs Whitehead said premmies were fighters from the start, and it was wonderful to know there were people in the community dedicated to helping make the lives of parents and their babies that little easier.
She said her family appreciated and loved all the knitted tiny beanies, booties and clothes they received in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
“We still have a lot of them as keepsakes,” Mrs Whitehead said.
“So on behalf of myself, and other parents of premmies, I want to say thanks for your work, Hazel.”