Taking up knitting again

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about needing a new hobby, since my hobby (patchwork and quilting) became my job. I also showed off a recently crocheted hat (click here if you missed it).

I also showed a picture of a beautifully knitted Swiss hat, created – in conjunction with the Innocent drink company – to raise funds for the elderly in that country.

I was intrigued and have since found out more. In the UK and Ireland last year the scheme (known here as the Big Knit) raised £200,000. With every smoothie bottle with a little hat, sold by Innocent, the company gives 25p to Age UK (or 30c to Age Action in Ireland). That means a LOT of little hats were made.

I found this quite irresistible, so of course I have made a little hat of my own and rather enjoyed picking up my knitting needles again.

You could make one too. There’s a website: www.bigknit.co.uk which includes a gallery of quite dazzling hats and a good number of patterns. They all have to be completed by 31 July 2017 and sent to The Big Knit, Age UK, Fruit Towers, Canal Building, 342 Ladbroke Grove, London W10 5BU.

I followed the pattern in the ‘Knitter Knatter’ booklet published to support The Big Knit, which made the genius suggestion of making a tiny pom-pom by winding wool round a fork – great idea.

Now, as it happens, I have a sock person with a head (if one can call it that!) just the right size for the small hat.

The sock person itself was a gift at Christmas a few years ago when we had a £5 present challenge within the immediate family. I can recommend this: it was a very inventive year! Two small sock people came into the house at the time; the other one is wearing the Swiss hat mentioned in my previous post:

The duo looks quite fetching in their hats.

This week, in a completely different context I read about the Innocent drinks company’s charitable activities and about how they committed from the very beginning of the company to giving at least 10% of their profits to charity. I found that impressive. You can read more about that here. It’s a good model and one I am interested in following with Amanda Jane Textiles. Right now,  I clearly need to send off a knitted hat to the UK charity, so I’m getting on with knitting the next one…

Please do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you – there’s a contact form.  If you have a friend who would enjoy this blog, please would you forward it to them? If you would like to read this blog every week, look for the words ‘Follow this blog by email’ and enter your email address. The blog posts will arrive each Monday in your in-box. If you would like to receive my special monthly newsletter, complete with colour inspiration, design inspiration and a free tutorial, please complete the pop-up form or get in touch via the contact form. I will never share your email with anyone.

This is my ‘Gnomes in the garden’ fabric design. You can find it here.

Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here