{"id":585814,"date":"2026-08-31T11:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585814\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:08:17","slug":"meet-the-northland-farmer-turned-baby-blanket-knitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585814\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Northland farmer turned baby blanket knitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Dargaville’s prolific baby blanket knitter<\/p>\n

A retired Northland farmer has found fulfilment by knitting hundreds of woollen blankets for premature babies.<\/p>\n

Mike Gilligan, of Dargaville, said he had so far knitted about 600 of the colourful, pint-sized blankets, with 47 delivered to Whang\u0101rei Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit this year alone.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old was first taught to knit by his wife, Edith, when they were newly married.<\/p>\n

She was expecting their first child and he’d been put out of action by a horse kick that dislocated his knee.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"Edith<\/p>\n

Edith and Mike Gilligan with one of his bigger blankets, knitted for a granddaughter.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

However, Mike’s hobby really took off once he retired.<\/p>\n

Until then he’d been too busy working on dairy and kumara farms, plus the job left his hands ingrained with grime.<\/p>\n

He started by knitting tiny cardigans for premature babies.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

Mike Gilligan gets started on yet another baby blanket.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

He was not fazed by jibes that knitting was a women’s pastime, or by being the only male in the group.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Mike said he rarely met the families who were given his blankets, but he sometimes received thank-you letters.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

\"Edith<\/p>\n

Edith and Mike Gilligan in their happy place.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

He sometimes tried his hand at other items, such as gloves.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

He had also raffled off a fire engine-themed blanket and donated the proceeds to Dargaville’s volunteer fire brigade.<\/p>\n

Mike said he had been contacted by people who wanted to buy his blankets but he had refused.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

While Mike did the bulk of the knitting in the Gilligan household, the blankets were very much a team effort.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Edith<\/p>\n

Edith Gilligan works on a knitting pattern based on a photo of a Dargaville fire truck.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Edith said knitting kept them both sane.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Dargaville fire chief Jason Campbell said the brigade first met Mike when he donated the proceeds of a blanket raffle.<\/p>\n

“Since then he’s given us another blanket with a fire truck on it to auction off,” he said.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"Farm<\/p>\n

Farm themes feature frequently on Mike Gilligan’s baby blankets, a nod to his former profession.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Hospital clinical nurse manager Jules Dewhurst said the unit was “incredibly grateful” for the baby blankets donated by Gilligan and his knitting group.<\/p>\n

They added warmth and comfort to the unit and featured cartoon characters, farm animals and colourful designs.<\/p>\n

“Each blanket brings its own unique personality, something that parents absolutely love during what can be a challenging time,” she said.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Mike said he had no plans to put down his knitting needles.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet Dargaville’s prolific baby blanket knitter A retired Northland farmer has found fulfilment by knitting hundreds of woollen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-585814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}