Now in its 13th year, budding knitters are being challenged to reach a whopping target of two million miniature woolly hats. The colourful creations will adorn innocent smoothie bottles, and for each be-hatted smoothie sold, innocent will donate 25p to help Age UK fund national and local projects that keep older people warm and well in winter.

Alan Weinstock, Chief Officer of Age UK Enfield said: “We are calling on local knitters to get as many hats as possible to us by December 31st. As the smoothie bottles don’t go on sale until October 2017 there’s even more time for knitters to keep sending hats in throughout the summer to help Age UK reach the bumper target.”

Each winter, one older person dies needlessly every seven minutes because of the cold . Every hat donated to Age UK Enfield will help fund local services such as the Befriending project.
Last year alone, more than 800,000 hats were lovingly created, with designs including the Wombles and Mr Men, cupcakes, colouring pencils, lots of animals and not forgetting the traditional bobble hat.

Sim Viney, innocent drinks, said: “We have had such great support for the Big Knit over the years, we are positive knitters across the country will take the challenge to make this year’s event the biggest ever. Even if you’ve never knitted a stich, creating a little hat is a great way to start and won’t take long. We’re massively grateful to everyone who joins in and helps make this year’s campaign a huge success.”

For more information on The Big Knit contact Age UK Enfield on 020 8375 4120 or log onto
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/…/news--campaigns/the-big-knit-2016/.

Please send completed hats to Age UK Enfield at Ponders End Library, College Court, High Street, Enfield, EN3 4EY

The hat knitting pattern is available to download, to find out more visit: www.ageuk.org.uk/bigknit or pop into our centre in Ponders End Library to pick up a leaflet.