EVEN WITHOUT SIGHT, SHE KNITS AND CREATES - HANDICRAFTS ARE PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR SLOBODANKA STANIMIROVIĆ

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, JULY 11 /SRNA/ - Slobodanka Stanimirović from Sokolac, who lost her sight during the war, has been overcoming life's hardships through handicrafts for more than three decades, independently knitting socks, vests and sweaters, which she most often gives as gifts.

Stanimirović told SRNA that knitting has become her best form of psychotherapy, helping her overcome the most difficult moments in her life after she and her husband were injured by a landmine in 1994, leaving her without both eyes. "The hardest thing was getting used to life without sight. You used to be capable of doing everything, and then suddenly you cannot even go to the bathroom by yourself — that is the hardest part. I gradually learned to do everything," Stanimirović said. HANDICRAFTS BRING PEACE Despite the difficult life challenge she faced, she says she never lost her faith. "The greatest gift from God was when, in 1997, after 14 years without children, I gave birth to a healthy son. God took away my eyesight, but He gave me a child," she said. Stanimirović says that handicrafts bring her peace and help her forget everyday problems. "When I pick up my knitting needles and start knitting, I leave all my problems behind. I think about the patterns, count the stitches and completely relax. It is true psychotherapy for me," she said. She most often knits socks, slippers, vests, sweaters and other garments, but, as she says, she never sells them. Stanimirović says she enjoys giving her creations as gifts the most, and that her greatest reward is seeing someone happy with something she has made. Although she lost her sight, Stanimirović still designs her own patterns, first imagining them in her mind and then, by counting stitches, turning them into handicrafts. "I knitted even before I lost my sight, so I know how it is done. I do not like copying from others; instead, I imagine everything myself and work that way. It is the easiest for me," Stanimirović said. KNITTING AS THERAPY She said that she still lives with four shrapnel fragments in her head, which is why she occasionally suffers from severe headaches, but that knitting often helps her more than medication. "Sometimes I do not even need to take a pill. I pick up my needles, start knitting and calm down," Stanimirović said. Two months ago, Stanimirović fell at home and broke both of her arms, which resulted in her wearing casts for 42 days. She says the hardest part for her was that she could not knit during that time, and as soon as the casts were removed, she picked up her needles again. "I started knitting right away. Even my doctor told me at my check-up: 'Just keep knitting, that is the best therapy for you,'" Stanimirović said. A DEVICE THAT RECOGNISES COLOURS — A GREAT HELP Recently, as part of the project "Independence Through Touch and Sound", jointly implemented by the City Organisation of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Istočno Sarajevo and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republika Srpska, she received a colour-recognition device which, as she says, will greatly make her daily life easier, especially when making handicrafts. "It is also good for recognising the colours of clothes and bed linen, but it will be most useful to me for yarn and thread. When I am sewing something or continuing knitting, I simply bring the device close, and it tells me what colour it is, so I can continue working on my own," Stanimirović said. Stanimirović says that her daily life has been greatly made easier by previously received assistive devices for the blind, such as a needle threader and a liquid level indicator that alerts her when a cup is filled with liquid.