Homeless Man Knits Baby Blankets

D E S  M O I N E S, Iowa, Nov. 30 -- Walt Downey may live at a homeless mission, but he still finds the time to think of others.

Every spare minute he has, Downey, of Des Moines, Iowa, can be found knitting baby blankets.

"If I really concentrate, it only takes me two days to make one, non-stop," he told ABCNEWS affiliate WOI-TV in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Downey lost his job for health reasons and now lives at the Door of Faith Mission.

He takes a little ribbing for the knitting, but said it helps him relax and helps him to quit smoking.

"I could be in my own world," Downey said. "It's very relaxing."

He said he started knitting as a young boy, and he likes to give things to people, so he put the two together.

Baby Blanket

The former nurse's aide takes the finished blankets to the Mercy Hospital birthing unit, where some lucky baby who needs a blanket will get a Downey original.

"It's nicely crocheted," said Marcia Crois, a nurse at the unit, of one example. "It will go with any sex — boy or girl."

Unit secretary Vickie Thompson said Downey approached her about giving the blankets last month.

"He's good," she said of Downey's skills. "Better than me."

"Everybody has an art," Downey said. "This is my art."

Jay Villwock is a reporter for the ABCNEWS affiliate WOI-TV in West Des Moines, Iowa.