Home Plus is a project from Care & Repair. Below you can read about how the project can support older people to have a warm home. If you’re concerned about the age of your boiler, or think the heat might be escaping through ramshackle windows, they might be able to help. The aim is to keep you warm and well – and in your own home, not in hospital or a care home.
 
Knit and Natter

One way to keep warm is to keep active. Knitting keeps your hands active – and you can end up making a woolly hat to wear on cold nights! As you might be aware, there are many “knit and natter” groups across the city. We went to visit one such group in Moor Allerton to find out why people knit and how they started. Hopefully the members’ enthusiasm might inspire you to get out of your cold house and find a knit and natter group in your area – or at the very least give knitting a try.
 
Knitting and Nattering in Moor Allerton For the knitters at Moor Allerton Elderly Care (MAE Care), it’s important to get out of the house and meet other like-minded people. On a cold day it’s good to get moving and come to MAECare’s warm, cosy centre in a shop unit in LS17. “It’s about company,” says group member Louise Iduas. Another member, Ann Pearce, agrees: “We could sit and knit at home. But it’s different here. You come out, you meet people you know and you can chat and catch up on things.” The group has been going for several years but nobody is quite sure when it started. “It’s been going forever!” says Louise. Ann Pearce recalls how she got involved: “A friend told me about the group about 20 years ago. I was a volunteer driver for MAECare. I delivered incontinence pads and drove people to appointments. I joined lots of groups back then. I go back a long way!”
 
Starting early
 
Other members joined more recently. Elaine moved up to Leeds from London 5 years ago. “I hadn’t done
knitting for years,” she says. Elaine started going to a keep-fit class at a local church. “For the centenary of the end of the first world war in 2018, members of the congregation decided they’d knit poppies. They did a wall of poppies in the church. I picked up knitting again from that – and I haven’t stopped since.” Elaine learned to knit when she was a child. “My mum taught me when I was 7 or 8. Around 60 years ago now.”
 
For Ann Pearce, knitting has been a lifetime pursuit. “I’ve knitted since I was 4,” she says. “My grandmother
taught me. That was over 80 years ago.” Ann’s first knitting project was an ambitious one – and her grandmother was on hand to help her. “After she had taught me the basics, I did a little toy rabbit. I was so
proud of it.” Ann believes that traditional crafts should be passed on through the generations. “I think knitting is a craft that is in danger of dying out,” she says. “We need to teach our children and grandchildren.”
 
It’s not just knitting either; the group do other crafts. Ann Pearce does crochet and makes lace. Ann James,
another member, likes a diverse range of crafts. “I love patchwork and quilting, she says. “I’ve made coverlets for single beds.” Ann James likes knitting but prefers to crochet. “I’m making a knee-blanket for when I’m old,” she says. Louise is a crochet-lover too and made a suit as her first project. She is a regular at the group, even though most weeks, she doesn’t actually knit. “I’m the natterer,” Louise laughs. “You’ve got to have one in the group. I can knit and do cross stich and crochet. But I don’t! I’m having a sabbatical!”
 
Since returning to sessions in the Autumn, the groups have been meeting but making sure they are socially
distant. “We’ve had to reduce numbers,” says Mary Baillie, who works for MAECare. “And we meet fortnightly so everyone gets a chance to come.” It’s clear that meeting face-to-face is really important to the group. “You’re interested in what other people are doing,” says Ann Pearce. “It gives you ideas and you get home and it gives you some energy to finish something off”
 
The act of knitting is beneficial too – physically and mentally. “It’s quite calming,” says Ann Pearce. It keeps your fingers active too – you lose most of your heat through your extremities, so knitting in the evenings can stop you getting too cold. Some of the members watch TV and knit. “I go for uncomplicated patterns,” says Elaine. “And I can’t watch anything with subtitles.” There are unexpected benefits too. “For me, at home in the evenings, it stops me snacking,” Elaine admits. “Craft brings you a lot of pleasure,” says Ann Pearce. “It gives other people pleasure as well because they get presents!”
 
Though many of the group learned to knit at a young age, it’s never too late to start (or restart). Ann Pearce
thinks it’s quite easy to learn: “With knitting there’s only 2 fundamental stitches: you’ve got to learn to
knit and you’ve got to learn to purl. Gradually, you learn to do more.” Louise agrees. “There’s always someone, somewhere to help you get started,” she says. “Once you get started, that’s it, there’s no stopping you. Mind you, I started a cross stitch for my grandson when he was 5. He’s 23 now.”