Hats off to our nifty knitter Elizabeth!

They say that when you want to head ‘ahead’, get a hat and one brave Ballymoney lady has proved that she is definitely ahead of the rest when it comes to charity work.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Sep 2014, 13:28 BST
T'HATS' OUR GRAN. Pictured is 81-year-old Elizabeth Wallace with her proud grandchildren Callum, Cameron and Ellie, who are wearing just some of the hundreds of hats Elizabeth knits for Blythswood Charity Shop and other worthy causes.INBM36-14 002SC.T'HATS' OUR GRAN. Pictured is 81-year-old Elizabeth Wallace with her proud grandchildren Callum, Cameron and Ellie, who are wearing just some of the hundreds of hats Elizabeth knits for Blythswood Charity Shop and other worthy causes.INBM36-14 002SC.
T'HATS' OUR GRAN. Pictured is 81-year-old Elizabeth Wallace with her proud grandchildren Callum, Cameron and Ellie, who are wearing just some of the hundreds of hats Elizabeth knits for Blythswood Charity Shop and other worthy causes.INBM36-14 002SC.

81-year-old Elizabeth Wallace was diagnosed with cancer in January of this year and required major surgery as part of her treatment.

Always a keen knitter before her illness, Elizabeth really took up the knitting needles with great gusto during her recovery as a way of keeping busy and helping others.

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Only recently retired from Gamble’s shop in Ballymoney at the grand age of 75, Elizabeth is a lady who was always used to keeping occupied and she wasn’t going to let even major surgery hold her back, as her daughter-in-law Michelle told the Times.

“When Elizabeth came home after her surgery she began to knit in the evenings to keep busy.

“She decided to knit little hats for children which are on sale in the Blythswood charity shop in the town.

“Blythswood sell the hats to people who use them to stock up the Christmas shoeboxes which so many school and church groups now send each year.

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“She uses wool donated to Blythswood or by family and friends or goes out and buys the wool herself.

“So far, she has knitted 120 hats!”

As well as helping both Blythswood and the Christmas shoebox appeals, Elizabeth’s busy knitting needles have given a boost to her proud grandchildren Callum, Cameron and Ellie.

“The children were very upset when Elizabeth went in for her operation because, to them, ‘Granny had never been sick’ before

“So when she came out and started into this knitting, and then began to knit so many of the hats, the children couldn’t believe it.

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“The knitting keeps Elizabeth busy but she is always thinking of other people all the time.”

Elizabeth noticed recently that Ballymoney businessman Johnathan Gault is preparing to travel to Uganda with the charity Fields of Life.

“Now she is going to contact them to see if they need any hats so that she can share them around to other charities,” explained Michelle.

If anyone has any spare wool that they would like to donate to Elizabeth’s creative charity knitting, it can be left into the Blythswood charity shop in Meetinghouse Street in Ballymoney.

Related topics:Uganda