“And if it helps someone, even better,” he said.
There are many worthy causes for which to knit but it’s the region’s highest-needs babies that have captured Gilligan’s heart and efforts.
Now aged 74, he began knitting for preemie and special care babies at Whangārei Hospital’s neonatal ward when he retired from farming about nine years ago.
He’s since made so many blankets for them that he’s lost count.
But healthcare assistant Hana Slade, who normally receives the lovingly made gifts on behalf of the hospital, said the number has got to be well over a thousand.
Gilligan routinely delivers boxes of more than 80 blankets at a time, Slade said.
Always colourful and fun with cartoon characters and animals, the blankets are regularly given out to families and make the perfect cot covers for the ward, being robust enough to endure the hospital’s hot wash cycles, she says.
Gilligan’s cheeky personality, ever-present cowboy hat and his noticeable status as the only male among the hospital’s knitting group, have made him a familiar face there.
Even staff who might not know him by name, affectionately call him the Dargaville Knitting Guy, Slade said.
“We can’t thank him enough for his beautiful knitting – it’s just amazing.”
Once, while knitting in a doctor’s waiting room, another patient recognised the blanket Gilligan was making and said it looked just like the ones his moko had come home from hospital wrapped in.
No doubt they probably were some of his, Gilligan said.
Knitting is a hobby Gilligan first learned as a child – one of nine siblings taught by their mother – but it didn’t truly take hold until adulthood.
“I didn’t really get into it until my wife and I were expecting our first child,” he said.
A dislocated knee from a run-in with a horse left him stuck at home for weeks and his wife encouraged him to pick up the needles again.
But once he returned to dairy farming, the knitting was shelved.
“As a dairy farmer, you can never have clean enough hands, no matter how much you scrub them,” Gilligan said.
Gilligan’s first creations were queen-sized blankets – special Christmas presents for each of his three sons.
Since then, he has knitted all manner of items, including 59 pairs of fingerless gloves for all the residents at a mate’s retirement village.
He and others in his Dargaville knitting group – of which he doesn’t mind being the only male – once made slippers for children at five local schools.
Gilligan has also knitted blankets for each of his grandchildren, who are now in their 20s and still have them.
While the special care and preemie babies are his favourite cause, Gilligan is also known for his generosity beyond the hospital. He recently donated $100 to Dargaville’s volunteer fire brigade after raffling off an intricate picture blanket he’d made.
Chief fire officer at Dargaville Jason Campbell said the money was a welcome surprise for the station that is always appreciative of extra funds.
Gilligan said he is as committed to the joy of buying and being given wool as he is to the joy of knitting it.
“There’s so much bloody wool at my place, I’ll never get through it all in my lifetime.”
He does many of his simple knits while watching television and often has more than one project on the go at once.
“I usually keep the complicated ones for times during the day when I can fully concentrate.”
On Thursdays, he knits outside the local supermarket with his two dogs while his wife does the weekly shop. It’s a great chance for a chat and he’s always amazed at the interest people take, Gilligan said.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.
