Pēpē Gift Guide

The first weeks with a pēpē happen mostly indoors, in a few rooms, at odd hours. Whānau arrive with kai. The washing line fills with small things.

What gets used in those first weeks is usually simple: a warm layer, something to wrap them in, and a blanket that goes from the bassinet to the pram. Merino suits all of it. It helps regulate temperature and manages moisture close to the skin, so it is as useful on a cool night as on a warm afternoon.

The colour of the sheep

In the high country of the Waitaki Valley, at Ōtemātātā Station, Philippa Cameron runs a flock of black merino sheep. Their fleece is a warm brown, and McDonald New Zealand knits its newborn pieces from it in its natural colour. The colour of the wrap, vest, beanie and booties is the colour the wool grew on the sheep.

Each piece is knitted seamlessly, shaped on the knitting machine rather than sewn together from panels, so there are no sewn seams inside the garments. The booties tie on, which helps with feet that rarely stop moving. The wrap, at about 100cm x 90cm (39" x 35"), swaddles in the early weeks and later goes over the pram, too.

All four pieces come together in the newborn pēpē gift set.

A blanket for the first months

MyBlanket designs and knits its merino baby blankets in New Zealand. They come in a bassinet size, 80cm x 90cm (31" x 35"), which tucks neatly into a pram, and a cot size, 90cm x 110cm (35" x 43").

With summer on the way, start with the eyelet blanket. It's knitted with small open holes through the fabric, which makes it lighter than the others, for a summer baby, a warm house or a pram in the shade.

For cooler nights and the months ahead, choosing mostly comes down to the stitch. Moss stitch, alternating knit and purl stitches, gives a fine, pebbled texture that looks the same on both sides. The Aran blanket has panels of raised diamonds, and the cable blanket has traditional cable patterns with a decorative edge.

Each one arrives wrapped in tissue in a cotton drawstring bag. For sleep, follow current safe-sleep guidance for your baby's age and sleep environment.

Kept and handed down

Newborn clothes are outgrown quickly and passed on in a bag to another whānau. The blanket tends to stay. It moves from the bassinet to the pram, then to the couch, then to a soft toy's bed on a bedroom floor.

Many whānau keep their pēpē's first blanket long after it has stopped being needed, and bring it out again for the mokopuna. By then it has become a small taonga, and someone usually remembers who gave it.

As they grow

Once tamariki start kura, warm layers have more to put up with: frosty walks to kura, and mittens pulled off at the gate and stuffed into a pocket. McDonald New Zealand's children's pieces are knitted in New Zealand from 55% merino wool, 35% possum fur and 10% mulberry silk.

The Fair Isle sweater is knitted in Fair Isle, a traditional pattern of small repeating shapes in bands of colour, and comes in sizes from 4 to 8 years.

The mittens, sized for ages 5 to 10, each carry an animal on the back of the hand. The sheep mittens have a sheep's face with ears that stand out from the sides. The kākāpō mittens are forest green with a mustard-gold kākāpō and wing details at the sides. The kākāpō, a flightless native parrot, is one of New Zealand's rarest birds.

Possums are part of the reason. Kākāpō live on plants, and introduced possums and deer stripped the forests they relied on for food. Before kākāpō could be moved to Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), off Rakiura Stewart Island, possums and weka had to be cleared from it, which was finished by 1986. Today every kākāpō lives on islands kept free of predators. Our conservation page covers why possum control matters for native birds.

Our garment care guide covers washing and storing merino. For a ready-made gift, the newborn pēpē merino gift set has all four McDonald New Zealand pieces.

Shop the MyBlanket collection

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Sources

1. Department of Conservation. "History: Kākāpō Recovery." doc.govt.nz
2. Te Aka Māori Dictionary. "pēpē." maoridictionary.co.nz