Ngaire Brown has knitted more than 100 woollen baby jumpers that cover newborns in Zambia from chin to toe. Fifty-five of them just left by post on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The incentive to knit for Zambia came from an unexpected direction.
Ngaire and her late husband Ted loved fishing, and on one expedition they found themselves short on supplies.
“We were keen fishermen and we were going past Rosemary Breen’s property with the dams there, and we were having trouble getting bait.”
A friend recommended they stop in to see Rosemary and ask if they might sink a few traps in the dams.
“From then on she said, look, come in any time you like.”
What started as a favour, turned out to be a solid friendship developed between the two families.
After Ngaire lost her husband, she needed something to do, and it found her after a word to Rosemary.
“I heard about Rosemary’s thing with the knitting and I thought ‘Oh-that sounds like me.”
After a phone call, Ngaire got the pattern and some yarn from Rosemary and eagerly went to work.
“I just let her know when I’ve got a bagful. She just wraps that up in Glad-Wrap and posts it so it cuts down on the weight,” Ngaire said.
Rosemary said she learned about the knitting project from Queensland and got the pattern.
“Lots of people in Toowoomba were doing it.
“Somebody had this pattern and the Blue Nurses in Toowoomba thought it was a great idea and involved lots of house-bound people to knit them.”
Rosemary explained the jumpers go to the Tikondane community in Katete, Eastern Province, Zambia. She was there when the residents received a package of the colourful babywear.
“We had a community meeting and then women were absolutely thrilled with them,” she said. “There are 80 or more families in that community.”
Ngaire said the situation for the new mothers tugged at her heart.
“They were so desperate because the nights are so terribly, terribly cold, they were wrapping the babies up in newspaper to keep them warm of a night-time and I thought, poor little darlings.”
Ngaire’s jumpers range in a rainbow of colours.
She uses inexpensive yarn that is easily washed and used again. She keeps her eye out for good bargains to make a number of jumpers and felt the minimal expense was a good investment all around.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t go to wild parties, and all I’d be doing is buying books to read!” laughed Ngaire.
If knitting newborn jumpers catches your heart, too, you can ring Ngaire on 6721 3345 for information on the pattern.