Team ensures new arrivals stay warm

While the professionals are tending to the medical needs of the new arrivals, a dedicated team of volunteers is ensuring that the babies keep warm and comfortable.
Walton Knitters is a 70-strong army which knits and crochets cardigans, romper suits, hats, bootees, bonding squares, blankets and toys throughout the year for hospitals up and down the country.
Babies arriving this Easter from Tunbridge Wells to Scotland will be kitted out in spring colours and have bunnies and chicks to cuddle.

Lisa McKenzie set up the group of craftswomen in Chesterfield two years ago. She said: “I had a bit of depression and anxiety and thought what can we do to make a difference to anyone who is feeling like that....I thought babies and angel babies.”
Lifelong knitter Lisa, 43, of St Augustines Crescent, Birdholme, rallied a team of seven creative relatives and friends to turn her brainwave into reality. The initiative really took off when she shared her aims with the chief executive at Walton Hospital where she works as a housekeeper. Lisa said: “She took it to a board meeting and everyone recruited themselves from the kitchen.”

The women get busy with their needles at home, fitting their knitting around family life. Mum of two Lisa said: “We just do it as a hobby. If I’m in a really good mood I can spend hours knitting – it depends if I’ve had a tiring shift at work.”
Her biggest challenge was to make a jacket for her niece Emma Marshall, who was born prematurely 19 months ago. 
She said: “I’ve never done another one since!
“The hardest thing to make is octopus toys, particularly the tentacles because babies hold onto them like an umbilical cord.”
Dorothy Collins-Carter, of Birdholme, is the oldest member of the group, at the grand old age of 91. Lisa said: “She has made bonding squares and enjoys doing it.” 
When Lisa isn’t knitting, she is busy planning fundraising initiatives and sourcing raffle prizes to cover the postage of the items. And she’s on the lookout for new patterns to share among the group’s membership.

“When your baby is an incubator, you’re not thinking about having to buy something to keep them warm...it’s already there,” said Maggie McKenzie.
“If you can help someone out there is no better feeling.”
Maggie admits that she hadn’t knitted since she was in her teens until sister Lisa recruited her to Walton Knitters.
She said: “I’m not the fastest knitter in the world but I like to do something a bit more challenging than knitting squares which is boring so I’ve made octopus toys.”
Knitting is currently on hold for Maggie who gave birth a couple of months ago to Harley, a little brother for Emma. She said: “Once I’ve got myself settled and have a bit more time, I’ll start on it again.”
Maggie, 39, of Grangewood, Chesterfield, is currently on maternity leave from her job at Fusion in Sheepbridge.

Her sister Jo Helps, who works for East Midlands Ambulance Service’s patient transport, is the only machine knitter in the group. She finds knitting by hand slow-going and struggles to get the tension right.
Jo, 32, who lives in Grangewood, said: “It took me four hours to knit a teddy and in four hours I can make 40 hats using the machine.  
“I bought a kids’ machine for knitting for £15 to see how it went but it broke so I borrowed a machine from my mum.”

Their mum Joan McKenzie, 65, a nursing assistant at Walton Hospital started knitting as a schoolgirl. She said: “I enjoy knitting anything. Give me a cardigan pattern and I’ll have a go.”
Joan lives in Grangewood as does fellow group member Karen McNeice who worked as a nursing assistant at Walton Hospital before she retired. 

Karen’s daughter Lynn was born two months premature 34 years ago. She said: “There was nothing like Walton Knitters when Lynn was born. I had to buy her little outfits and knit her cardigans.”
Knitting now helps Karen,56, cope with depression. She said: “It gives me something to do and occupies my mind. 
“It’s making a difference to my life - I hope it’s making a difference to other people’s lives as well.”

Walton Knitters also help couples for whom the outcome is not what they hoped for.
Angel babies who are born sleeping are lovingly wrapped in blankets, hats and given bonding squares. Lisa said: “We give two sets so the parents have got something that belongs to baby which they can swap when the time is right.”
The group also makes burial outfits and sources wedding dresses which are sent to Newcastle to be made into angel gowns.