Creating a menagerie of crochet animals

Jill Holland’s first success with crochet was a teal-blue mini dress that she made to wear to the hospital to perk up her ill mother.

It was another half century before she took up serious crochet and today she is surrounded by crocheted giraffes, dinosaurs and ponies with multi-coloured tack.
The 84-year-old had a table laden with crocheted toys at the Arvida Oakwoods’ village Christmas mini market last week, including her favourite, a bright blue giraffe with a yellow bow tie.

She lives in a serviced apartment in the village these days, but for three years lived in the hospital unit, recovering from a stroke and various illnesses that followed the loss of her husband. It was crochet that literally got her back on her feet.

“My husband had died and there was just too much and I had had enough of mental health and that’s why I started crocheting. I needed something to do.”
She started buying patterns off the internet and a staff member says the toys now “appear overnight”.

“Everyone says I’m clever, but I’m just following a pattern. I try to give expression to them though.”

Her mother tried to teach her how to crochet when she was young, but her mother was right-handed and Jill was left-handed, so she couldn’t work it out. Later, as an adult with two children, she tried crochet again.

“My mother got sick, so I decided I had to learn and the first thing I crocheted was a frock and I wore it when I went to see her in the hospital. In those days it was miniskirts.” Fast forward several decades and Jill was in the hospital wing at the village, learning to walk again after a stroke and once again she chose to crochet.

Another stroke at the beginning of this year affected the left side of her body which makes some of the crochet patterns almost impossible, but it hasn’t stopped a range of colourful toys being created.

“It’s therapy; good therapy, and keeps my mind active. I’m not as fast as I used to be.” Yet, it still only takes her two or three days to complete a new toy, each with its own expression.