Plumpton Villa resident Jean Rouse knitting bears for charity

JEAN Rouse used to rely on her father’s tips to learn knitting. Now the 90-year-old is working her way through 50 orders for her popular teddy bears and handing on cash to charity.

THE needles keep clacking, even through injury for Glenroy’s bear maker.

Jean Rouse lives in the Plumpton Villa community home and is halfway through 50 orders for her specially made teddy bears.

The 90-year-old said she previously made bears for the police force and after a cook in the villa noticed some of her handy work, word spread quickly.

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She has made 25 bears to order, even despite working with a sore left arm following a fall in November last year.

“I had to say to my daughter, can you bring me in a little book so I can remember them all. I like to knit until my arm gets sore, then I need a break,” she said.

“People ask me, do you have a pattern and I just say I keep it in my head.”

Jean Rouse surrounded by her creations. Picture: Ellen Smith

Ms Rouse produces the bears in any colour she has available and said knitting was a family tradition from when her family lived on a farm during the Great Depression.

“Dad would come in for a cup of tea and sit beside me and straighten out my lines … we would sit by the fire at night and all knit clothes for us and for our family,” she said.

Ms Rouse charges up to $13 for her bears and donates any profits to charity. She is in need of more wool to complete her orders, with donations of any colour accepted.

Donate wool to the villa at 7 Lewis St, Glenroy or call 8311 3600.

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