Get Creative for a Good Cause

Innocent Smoothie Hats by Stitchlily on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons.

Our UK readers have probably noticed the little bobble hats that bottles of Innocent Smoothies wear each autumn. You might even have knitted some of them yourself. Well, it has got to that time of year again: the now annual Big Knit 2010 has cast on.

Every year for the past seven years, people across the land have knitted their socks off in aid of the annual Big Knit campaign. Innocent have received an amazing 1.6 million little hats and raised over £800,000 for Age UK (formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged) - all to help make winter warmer for older people.

For 2010 each be-hatted smoothie sold in Sainsbury’s stores will raise 25p and their target is £200,000, which is quite a pile of hats. This is why they need your help -simply pick up your needles or DPNs and knit us a little hat. It is a great way to use up those little bits of yarn in your stash.

The basic pattern is only 28 stitches and 18 rows – that’s not even a tension square. Could you whip one up while you watch your favourite soap? How many could you do in a month? The deadline for hats isn’t until 5^th October so please try and fit a few

Innocent will be putting up lots of fun patterns and announcing a competition or two very soon but for now just go to their site to get started.

My friend Katie and I had lots of fun making these last year: here she is looking suitably innocent with one of hers!

Ingrid x

PS Forgive me for the line spacing in the latter half of the post; I can't seem to clear it.