Mandurah 95-year-old woman knit as a fiddle

Ms Butler learnt how to knit in her early teens, and never stopped knitting cardigans and jumpers for her family until her children decided to switch the hand-knitted pieces for cheaper prêt-à-porter clothes.

“I used to knit all their cardigans, and my husband, I used to knit him jumpers,” Ms Butler said.

“But the kids they didn't want hand-knits, they rather go to Kmart and buy something from there.”

However, fifteen years ago Ms Butler found a renewed purpose for her knitting; knitting blankets for the children in need.

“My daughter-in-law, she was doing it,” she said.

“That was over ten years ago and I've been doing it ever since.”

Ms Butler has been so committed to the cause over the years that her fellow knitters named a blanket after her; the Butler blanket.

However, in 2006 Ms Butler’s life would take a u-turn. 

While in Carnarvon Ms Butler started suffering from Guillain–Barré syndrome, a self-immune disorder that causes muscle weakness and damages the nervous system.

Ms Butler’s body was almost completely paralysed, and she could only move to frown. 

She was flown to Royal Perth Hospital straight away, where she tirelessly fought to recover body mobility.

Despite all odds, Mr Butler recovered full control of her body’s mobility.

But life tested her resilience again only a few years after, when Ms Butler fell in her home and lost one eye.

Shorty after, she suffered an aneurysm that affected vision in her other eye, leaving her completely blind.

But after knitting her whole lifetime, Ms Butler learned how to use the needles without seeing and kept knitting squares to send to those less fortunate.

“When I could see I used to knit a couple a day, now I do one a week or something,” she said.

“I can't knit anything fancy, but these are just ordinary squares.

“You've got to make the most of what you've got.”

“I've had ups and downs, more downs than ups I think, but we get there on the finish.”