Local knitter donates homemade creations to CAS

She might not be one of Santa’s elves, but she gave in a big way this Christmas.

Elma St. Amour, 83, donated 100 hand-knitted pairs of socks and 25 pairs of mittens to the Children’s Aid Society.
The feat took her more than two years of knitting.

“Well, I’ve always enjoyed knitting and I’ve always been into crafts and knitting,” she said. “And then about three-and-a-half years ago I lost my sight to macular degeneration.”

Macular degeneration results in a loss of central vision, according to the CNIB’s website. It usually affects older adults, above the age of 50.

Everyday tasks and hobbies like reading and driving can be made impossible.

Such is the case with St. Amour.

“I wasn’t able to do the things I used to.”

She decided to spend more time knitting. “When I saw that I was able to do that, I just started knitting and putting them in a box. Then I figured I had enough (after more than two years) that I should try to get rid of them.

The Children’s Aid Society was a perfect fit for her donation, she said.

“I had looked around and found that I could donate to different organizations, and I chose Children’s Aid... They can always use them.”

Initially, when her sight got worse, St. Amour spent more than a year in limbo.

“When I first lost most of my sight, I just quit everything. Then I decided one day that I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing... I had to try and see what I could do. “I have to keep busy doing something, and knitting was always one of my favourites.”

St. Amour says she has been knitting since she was five years old.

She was born and brought up in Scotland, and her mother taught her how to knit. “She was a great knitter too.”

St.Amour moved to Canada in 1946, to Markstay, just outside Sudbury.

“The thing is, you have to try and see what you can do on your own. I can see things, I’m not totally blind. It’s all the small things... Like reading, I can’t read.”

Living with macular degeneration can be challenging, she said.

“It’s just a challenge. Anytime you pick up a bottle with printing or a box with instructions, you have to get your little magnifying glass and take time to read it and sometimes you miss letters or you miss numbers. It’s quite a challenge.”

To knit, St. Amour relies on her limited vision and “just the feel of the stitches, when you’ve done it for that number of years.”

Her vision condition does slow her knitting down though, she said.

“It slows me down, I don’t knit as fast as I used to.”