A RESURGENCE in the age-old art form of knitting at one Morwell primary school has provided some much-needed pouches for orphaned local wildlife.
Over the past three years St Vincent’s Primary School students have been learning to knit under the volunteer guidance of three women who sought only to pass on their skills to those who were interested and, in the process, help out worthy causes.
One of those women, Bev Noonan, said a fitting end to the past term’s ‘knitting club’ was a visit to St Vincent’s this week of some of the orphaned baby animals who now had new pouches.
Seventy-six year-old Jean Quick, who has owned and operated ‘Jean-e-us’ wildlife shelter for the past 15 years and relies on her pension to cover costs, brought baby wombats and kangaroos to the school, proving a hit with students.
Mrs Noonan said it was a positive experience for students to see the end result of their work and understand they were contributing to something worthwhile.
The pouches were made from left-over squares of blankets knitted by the students last year and donated to another charity.
Mrs Noonan said her involvement in the school’s knitting club had been “a pleasure” and she believed all of the participating students – one of whom claimed he had been “waiting his whole life to learn to knit” – were now competent knitters.
