WHEN Doris Bee began knitting as a child to keep in the good books of the nuns in the convent where she was raised, she had have no idea that the hobby would become a life-long passion.
Now “nearly 90” , Doris keeps herself busy at her Middleton-in-Teesdale bungalow by creating knitted nativity scenes, teddies, and garments for dolls and their prams
She pays for all the materials herself and sells them to help The Friends of Darlington Memorial Hospital.
Her tiny nativity scenes, which are complete with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, wise men, sheep and a little donkey, take ten days to make. They are on sale at the hospital shop and can be seen in the windows of the Middleton’s chemist and ironmongers, among other placesm including the primary school.
It all began when she was sent to live in a convent as a child in London after her mother died.
Doris said: “I started knitting so the nuns wouldn’t make me scrub the floors. I would have been about ten and the nuns sold what I made. There was method in my madness. I also learnt embroidery but these days I just knit. I buy the pushchairs and buy the dolls from second-hand shops. I bath them then dress them. They go to the hospital in Darlington and get sold in the shop. I also make things for the church.
“I don’t do it because I’m a goody-goody. I just enjoy making them – what else would you do all day if you were a pensioner? It also stops me from getting Alzheimers – my doctor says to ‘use it, or lose it’.”
Her partner, Lenny Anderson, 86, added: “It gives people pleasure.”
Doris, who moved to Middleton from Staindrop in January, doesn’t follow any patterns. After eight decades of knitting, she doesn’t need to. It takes two days to create clothing for her dolls and a friend knocks up the wooden stable and crib for her festive scenes. The dolls and teddies have become popular with local children.
One thank you letter reads: “Dear Doris, thank you so much for the lovely dolls and pushchairs. We think they are lovely and we will take good care of them. Love from all the boys and girls at Dawn-till-Dusk Nursery.”
The Friends of Darlington Memorial Hospital has also thanked her, saying the charity shop sold two of the dolls on the first day and her efforts were making sure the baby section was well stocked.
The 89-year-old, who has been blind in one eye since birth, says her childhood was tough.
“They didn’t put the siblings together in the convent. I
didn’t see my sister until I was 16. For me it was normal, but those who came in when they were bombed out in the Blitz, you could hear them crying. You got punished if you did something wrong and we had to pray all the time.”
She jokes that the nuns
didn’t allow her to look at men.”
“When we walked to church, two by two, if you saw a man, the nun would say, ‘eyes down’. I look back at it and laugh but at the time I couldn’t do that.”
