Barbara’s Knit-a-thon
- Barbara Gilvey showing her dog Molly the 440 yard scarf
When Barbara Gilvey took up knitting as a hobby, she never envisaged how much time she would be spending practicing her knit stitch.
Barbara, from Lowhill in Wolverhampton, sadly lost her mother to cancer 8 years ago, and needed something to focus on, so she decided that she would fundraise as a way of thanking Compton Hospice for the help and support that her family received from the hospice’s home care team.
After much deliberation as to how she could raise money, Barbara came up with the idea of a knit-a-thon. She would see how big she could knit a blanket and ask for sponsorship from friends, family and local businesses. So Barbara took out her needles and began to knit, she knitted, and she knitted, until eventually two years later, the blanket was so big it couldn’t be laid out in her living room. Barbara had raised a total of £3000 and where most people would have been pleased by this, Barbara wanted to do more.
Her next project was to knit a scarf, so out came her knitting needles again. In May this year, after another two years, Barbara finally finished the scarf. It had reached a quarter of a mile in length, and Barbara had raised a staggering £10,000.
Barbara has vowed to continue knitting until her hands no longer let her, and has started a new blanket to add to her collection.
