Charity of the Month: Age UK

This year, the Innocent Drinks Big Knit campaign is celebrating its tenth birthday and is hoping for more hats than ever before.

The Big Knit campaign raises money for Age UK in order to help elderly people around the UK during the harsher winter months.

Every year, Innocent Drinks has been asking knitters to create tiny hats to sit on top of their smoothies, encouraging as much creativity as possible. Fancy knitting a miniature chef’s hat? Maybe a fluffy sheep? Or even a punk rocker? Let your imagination run wild!

Even Sienna Miller, Heston Blumenthal and Sir Paul Smith have been joining in the fun. For each smoothie sold, Innocent Drinks donates 25p to Age UK. Over the years, an incredible £1.3 million has been raised thanks to the quirky creations!

Deramores is the official knitting partner for the Big Knit campaign, and you can find all sorts of fun patterns by heading to www.deramores.com/bigknit, including a wonderful owl pattern from LK toy designer, Val Pierce.

And as if that wasn’t enough to choose from, Juliet Bernard has also provided free patterns on her Ravelry page using Special DK from the Big Knit’s official yarn supplier, Stylecraft - including some rather fruity designs!

Image: Juliet Bernard/Ravelry

Meanwhile, we’ve been collecting images from our readers online, which you can see here. Tweet us or visit our Facebook page, and let us know what you’ve been up to!

The deadline for submissions to Innocent Drinks is 1st October 2013. Go to www.innocentdrinks.co.uk to download patterns, and post your hats to The Big Knit, Innocent ltd, 342 Ladbroke Grove, London, W10 5BU.