By Bejay Browne
A sprightly British expat octogenarian is a one woman blanket making machine, turning out hundreds of beautifully knitted blankets for charities and hospitals as a hobby.
Pensioner Ivy Gibson lives in Chlorokas in Paphos and has recently celebrated her 84th birthday, putting people half her age to shame. She says her boundless energy is down to a sunny disposition and a fun loving attitude to life.
“I don’t like to sit around and do nothing, it’s far too boring. I think laughing helps keep you young and I’m not a miserable person,” she said.
The 84-year-old says she has always been interested in knitting and is self taught. She also tried her hand at crochet lessons and although she could pick it up at lessons, laughingly admits that she made a terrible mess of it when practicing at home. So she decided to stick to knitting.
“I picked it up knitting easily and I really enjoy it. I can knit without looking now. I used to knit things other than blankets – such as clothes – but I don’t do that any more.”
Before moving to Cyprus she also knitted blankets for charities in the UK including Oxfam and CLIC. Ivy has a collection of thank you letters and cards from all sorts of charities, associations and hospitals in the UK.
The avid knitter initially produced her stunning blankets in Cyprus along with a couple of friends from the Anglican Church in Paphos in 2004; these went to a Larnaca based association.
She said: “Then we heard that the Friends hospice was opening in Paphos, so we started knitting blankets for them. Our then vicar came and blessed them.”
She has also knitted blankets for the maternity unit at the Paphos General hospital, as well as the children’s ward and old peoples homes.
Last year the Friends hospice relocated to St. George’s clinic in Paphos and all of Ivy’s old multi-coloured blankets which had graced every bed were distributed to the Red Cross, the elderly and Solidarity charity.
“Now I’m sticking to knitting two coloured blankets – these new ones are now in all of the bedrooms at the hospice’s new location.”
The ‘blanket lady’ met husband George, when she was 11 and she was evacuated to his aunt’s house in Watford. The pair got married in 1949, when Ivy was just 19. He went on to become a commissioning engineer in Iran. “He was my one true love, I was lucky,” she said.
George died suddenly in 2008, after suffering a heart attack.
She said: “It was very difficult when my husband died as he went quickly and there was no warning. But I still wanted to stay here in Cyprus. I love it and I have so many friends here. My knitting helped me”.
Ivy says she has knitted hundreds of blankets both here and in the UK and it gives her great joy to see the happiness on people’s faces when she presents them with one.
A regular two colour blanket will take her about one or two weeks to complete, depending on how she’s feeling and the season.
“I get going in the winter, but in the summer when it’s hot I’m a bit slower,” she said.
The pensioner’s home is kept spick and span and on her bed is a stunning hand knitted bedspread, made following a National Trust pattern. “I made this bedspread in 1996 and it took months. I worked for the National Trust when I retired. They knew I liked knitting and a bedspread in one of the old houses was threadbare, so I knitted a new one.”
Ivy says she got carried away and made so many of them that they gave her the pattern. “I knitted the squares and the National Trust seamstresses sewed them up.”
The knitting phenomenon says she often has problems getting hold of the wool she wants in Cyprus, and so when she travels to England she leaves her clothes at a friend’s house and fills her suitcase with wool. “It’s much cheaper there than here.”
Ivy is also a fan of music, and some of her best memories include attending concerts in the UK. She now loves listening to Dean Martin, Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck, Julio Iglesias and Barbara Streisand. “I don’t reckon much of the singers today though,” she says.
The Paphos resident says she is only making blankets for the Friends hospice now. Although some coloured knitted squares were recently left at her church and she is in the process of putting them all together and edging them.
They will go to the babies of the families being helped by Paphos based Solidarity charity, which is helping to feed and clothe the needy of the district.
“My friends have stopped knitting now and nobody else has taken an interest,” she said.
Ivy listens to the radio when she’s knitting, as it keeps her company, and says she will keep knitting until she is no longer able.
“It makes me feel happy when someone loves my blankets.”
