I'm 89 years old and like so many elderly and vulnerable people, I’ve found the recent Coronavirus lockdown situation difficult to adjust to in numerous ways.  Luckily for me, whilst nowadays I’m a bit unsteady on my feet, I’m still very keen and pretty capable of doing all sorts of crafts and so have been filling the many hours, days and weeks of social isolation by knitting “twiddle muffs”. 

Around six months ago I was approached to knit 20 twiddle muffs for a specific group of people in the local community.  I was delighted to help out and so got wired in and produced those 20 muffs pretty quickly. 

By then I was hooked and quickly realised there are actually several advantages to knitting twiddle muffs.  Of course, the first and most important benefit is to the recipients ... people with dementia often have restless hands and like to have something to keep their hands occupied.  A twiddle muff provides a wonderful source of visual, tactile and sensory stimulation, and keeps hands snug and warm at the same time.  But I’ve found there are also benefits for me too – not only is knitting keeping me physically and mentally occupied, it’s also making a great dent in my enormous stock of gorgeous textured and coloured wool that I’ve been buying and hoarding for years ... one of my guilty pleasures!

Over the last six months or so I’ve knitted around 70 twiddle muffs, the first 20 of which were donated to the local community group previously mentioned and others I’ve passed on to people with dementia I’ve heard about via friends, family and carers.

My heart goes out to those residents in care homes across Scotland who are no longer able to enjoy a communal meal or social activities with their fellow residents and must instead be confined to their rooms to prevent the possible spread of Covid-19 and I hope that a twiddle muff will brighten their days and offer a little comfort. 

Watching Captain Tom’s recent endeavours to raise such an awesome amount for the NHS has been an inspiration to us all, which brings me neatly to my plea that you might consider a donation to Alzheimer Scotland. 

I’m now delighted to be donating all the twiddle muffs I’m knitting to Alzheimer Scotland for distribution to those in need and I’ve set myself a target of knitting a total of 100 muffs and so to help motivate me I’m hoping that all you generous people might help me raise funds for Alzheimer Scotland, which is Scotland’s national dementia charity, whose aim is to make sure that nobody faces dementia alone.  They provide support and information to people with dementia, their carers and families, including providing a 24 hour freephone Dementia Helpline.  Alzheimer Scotland campaigns for the rights of people with dementia and funds vital dementia research.  Please donate what you can to inspire me to keep these knitting needles clacking!

Every penny you can donate will inspire me on this personal challenge to knit as many twiddle muffs as I can during the lockdown, whilst at the same time hopefully raising some funds to help Alzheimer Scotland.

With best wishes and stay safe!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.