Meet Dargaville’s prolific baby blanket knitter
A retired Northland farmer has found fulfilment by knitting hundreds of woollen blankets for premature babies.
Mike Gilligan, of Dargaville, said he had so far knitted about 600 of the colourful, pint-sized blankets, with 47 delivered to Whangārei Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit this year alone.
The 76-year-old was first taught to knit by his wife, Edith, when they were newly married.
She was expecting their first child and he’d been put out of action by a horse kick that dislocated his knee.
“It was obvious that within a few weeks one or other of us was going to end up in a mental asylum, so Edith taught me to knit. Then through the years I knitted my own jerseys and jerseys for the boys.”
Edith and Mike Gilligan with one of his bigger blankets, knitted for a granddaughter.
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
However, Mike’s hobby really took off once he retired.
Until then he’d been too busy working on dairy and kumara farms, plus the job left his hands ingrained with grime.
He started by knitting tiny cardigans for premature babies.
“But one of the nurses very politely said to me, ‘Oh, we have old ladies that knit really beautiful cardigans’, and I didn’t do patterns very well. She said, ‘What we need is blankets’, so I’ve been doing it ever since.”
These days Mike is the cornerstone of the Dargaville Craft Group that meets at the Gilligans’ home twice a week to knit for various causes.
Mike Gilligan gets started on yet another baby blanket.
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
He was not fazed by jibes that knitting was a women’s pastime, or by being the only male in the group.
“They just accept me as I am. I’m the sort of person you take me as you see me or don’t bother to take me at all.”
Mike said he rarely met the families who were given his blankets, but he sometimes received thank-you letters.
“But I don’t do it for thanks. I do it because I love doing it. The wife and I can just sit here and do our knitting together. I haven’t got any other sort of interests other than sneaking off fishing with my son occasionally,” he said.
Edith and Mike Gilligan in their happy place.
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
He sometimes tried his hand at other items, such as gloves.
“I went up to visit a mate of mine in the old folks’ home one day and his hands were cold. Old people don’t like their fingers being covered so I came home and I knitted him a pair of fingerless gloves and took them to him the next day,” Mike said.
“The lady sitting beside him said, ‘Why is he so special? Why can’t I have one?’ Long story short, 59 pairs of gloves later, everybody in the rest home had them.”
He had also raffled off a fire engine-themed blanket and donated the proceeds to Dargaville’s volunteer fire brigade.
Mike said he had been contacted by people who wanted to buy his blankets but he had refused.
“As soon as you start selling things it becomes a chore. I’m not interested in chores and I’m not interested in making money out of it. I just do it for the pure enjoyment of doing it.”
While Mike did the bulk of the knitting in the Gilligan household, the blankets were very much a team effort.
Edith’s role was to take her husband’s ideas, photos or images from the internet, and convert them into knitting ‘graphs’, using software designed for making cross-stitch patterns.
Edith Gilligan works on a knitting pattern based on a photo of a Dargaville fire truck.
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
She said the aim was to find an image that would appeal to very small children, then simplify it and reduce the number of colours to make it knittable.
Edith said knitting kept them both sane.
“He was used to working flat out all day every day on the farms, so this keeps him occupied and keeps him out of my hair. And he enjoys it.”
Dargaville fire chief Jason Campbell said the brigade first met Mike when he donated the proceeds of a blanket raffle.
“Since then he’s given us another blanket with a fire truck on it to auction off,” he said.
“What he does for the hospital, knitting blankets for the neonatal unit, is outstanding. It’s good for the community to have people like Mike in it.”
Farm themes feature frequently on Mike Gilligan’s baby blankets, a nod to his former profession.
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Whangārei Hospital clinical nurse manager Jules Dewhurst said the unit was “incredibly grateful” for the baby blankets donated by Gilligan and his knitting group.
They added warmth and comfort to the unit and featured cartoon characters, farm animals and colourful designs.
“Each blanket brings its own unique personality, something that parents absolutely love during what can be a challenging time,” she said.
“They’re also the perfect fit for our bassinets, making them both practical and special. These handmade blankets are treasured by our families and help create a sense of care and connection for our tiniest patients.”
Mike said he had no plans to put down his knitting needles.
“I’ve got enough wool here at present to last me for 12 months, but I’ll just keep doing it until I can’t do it any more. I enjoy doing it and I get a kick out of knowing that these blankets are going to a useful cause.”