An elderly man has been dubbed a grandfather of Dunedin after knitting 900 pairs of baby booties for expectant mothers.
Dunedin resident Jim Trainor was taught to knit by his grandmother when he was 6.
After a lifetime of knitting, the 82-year-old now spends his days creating piles of baby booties to donate to Pregnancy Help in South Dunedin for the city’s expectant mothers.
"I heard an advertisement for [knitted donations] somewhere, and I thought ‘I can do that’, so I started making them.
"So, that’s what happened. I dropped the first lot in and I’ve been doing it ever since."
Mr Trainor started making the booties for Pregnancy Help Dunedin six or seven years ago, and recently made his 900th pair of booties for Dunedin babies.
He made his own grandchildren shawls, baby clothes and their own booties.
Now he is filling that role for any babies in the city who may not have a family figure to knit handmade pieces for them.
"One set takes about an hour and a-half to two hours — by the end of the week I usually have about 10 pairs of booties made."
Pregnancy Help Dunedin has a collection of knitters making a variety of baby clothes and helps their knitters by providing wool to make their baby goods.
Mr Trainor said he had not seen any babies wearing his booties while he was out and about, but Pregnancy Help Dunedin manager Chris Ottley said they were out there.
"We try to do a lot with keeping babies warm, because not everyone has a Jim in their family to knit for their little ones. Jim is part of out wider community of knitters — they’re our grandparents to the city."
Ms Ottley said they were providing Dunedin families with more than 40,000 baby items each year and about 5000 of those items were hand-made knitwear.
"It’s all about layering and those little ones need woollen layers — every family needs a helping hand with woollens to keep our babies warm, especially down here in Dunedin.
"It’s nice for me because when I’m handing out woollens for families I always know when I’m giving out a pair of Jim’s booties. All out knitters have their specialty and booties are Jim’s."
