The Catholic Church across Yorkshire's historic West Riding since 1878

The Catholic Church across Yorkshire's historic West Riding since 1878

Knit and Natter in Dewsbury

Knit and Natter came about after a conversation with a student at St John Fisher Catholic School in Dewsbury regarding her grandmother ‘always forgetting…’

Staff and students from years 7 to 11 dropped into the Chaplaincy either to learn to knit or to share their knitting skills, also visiting St Joseph’s Primary School to introduce the project there – with amazing results!

The generosity of the staff and local community was tremendous: with donations of yarn and needles. The knitters also trained as Dementia Friends to deepen their understanding of living with dementia. Depending on their level of skill, they created everything from small squares to more complex shapes, and the result was a selection of sensory ‘twiddle blankets’.

St John Fisher’s Lay Chaplain, Angela Eddy, said, ‘We were delighted to welcome Parish Priest and School Chaplain Fr Jonathan Hart to lead us in prayer for those who will receive the blankets and give us all a special blessing. It has been a wonderful school community experience, with staff and students working well to create these sensory lap blankets for parishioners in our community.’

Fr Jonathan is also the Chair of the Diocesan Peru Commission.   He was very impressed and requested three blankets to take to Peru. On his return from a recent visit to our Mission in Lima he wrote:

To all those involved in Knit and Natter – thank you so much for your fine efforts. The blankets are beautiful.

Three of these blankets went with me to Lima, Peru. 

One went to Germayori. She is a nine year old girl who was diagnosed with Leukaemia last year. Her treatment which includes chemotherapy is very painful but she has a good chance of making a full recovery. Germayori and her family are poor. They were delighted to receive something so bright and cheerful.

Isabel took another for her granddaughter who has also been poorly. She was over the moon.

Another went to Carmen and will brighten up the home of her grandchild. 

Everyone was so happy to receive a gift so colourful and carefully made. They will think and pray for you when they look at the blanket. We all now have friends in South America!’

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