hats it

Ok so we're running out of hat puns now. But just to tie up all things Big Knit like nicely we'd like to let you know the final scores on the doors which were...

A massive 506,768 little hats knitted (that's over half a million hand made hats, that's a lot of hats).

Meaning at 50p per hat we can give Age Concern a big fat cheque for £253,384.

And if you fancy helping to judge the best little knitted hat photos added to this year's Big Knit flickr group just pick your own favourites here (before Tue 23rd Dec).

pat 'the hat' rawcliffe

 

We had some special visitors today, of the knitting variety. 

The one and only Pat Rawcliffe - owner of the magical pair of hands that knitted this year's hat of the year - popped into fruit towers today with her three lovely friends Margaret, Marjorie and Bridget. There were many fine hats sent in this year, but there was only one knitter out there with the skill, vision and downright courage to knit a Ram With a Big Left Eye hat. Pat Rawcliffe, ladies and gentlemen - breaking down knitting barriers and purling her own path to the delight of us mere mortals. What a lady.

seeing double

This is the kind of thing that kept Mulder and Scully in a job for so long. It's the kind of thing that just defies belief. It's the stuff, we dare say, of Big Knit legend.

Sabine lives in Germany and is a big fan of our drinks, so when she visited England last week she was dead chuffed to see our little bottles wearing hats in Sainsbury's. By sheer coincidence though, and what really made her day, was seeing her favourite recipe sporting a miniature version of her own hat. She bought it straight away and sent us this picture.

We like stories like this. They make us smile. In fact, we haven't smiled this much since Del Boy fell over sideways in Only Fools and Horses, so if any of you crazy cats out there should happen to find miniature versions of your own hats, do send us a snap. We like a good smile. 

dr where?

You may remember a couple of weeks ago that we were having a spot of bother with some psychadelic daleks (let's face it, we've all been there.) Well, we promised that we'd keep you posted on how things turned out, so here's the update.

We left IT Sam in our phone box, fighting for his life (ish). This is what IT Sam fighting for his life (ish) looked like:

 

Lots of you posted comments on our knitter natter blog suggesting how we could combat these tiny terrors. Some were so clever we couldn't understand them. Others were genius in their simplicity. 

No sooner had the ideas come in, we gathered the materials you guys said we'd need (took us ages to find a sonic screwdriver) and headed to the phone box to Save Our Sam.

However, by the time we got there, both Sam and the daleks had disappeared. Where once advanced a marauding mass of psychadelic daleks, now lay a piece of paper.

 

It was a note from the daleks.

  

As this photo clearly shows, the daleks have escaped (in fairness the queue for the sonic screwdriver in Argos was rather large). And no sign of our Sam either.

However, we're pretty sure they've snuck into the last batch of hats that were sent out to Sainsbury's stores this week - meaning they're out there, somewhere, now.

So, your quest is simple. Track down the bottles that have these dalek hats on them, take a picture to prove that you've found one, and send it in to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk to win yourself a case of smoothies. There are fourteen dalek hats in total, waiting to be found.

If you do find one in your local Sainsbury's, please approach it with caution. They may look cute, but they're a force to be reckoned with.

And if you find IT Sam on your travels, perhaps sat a-top a smoothie bottle pretending to be a hat, please tell him to stop messing about and get back to Fruit Towers, my laptop's bust.

May the dalek hunt begin.

big knit banter with beryl and jean

A few weeks ago, Meera and I went to visit Age Concern in Camden to have a chat about the big knit over some tea and knitting. You can read the blog post we made here. We've also made a little film about it. The sound quality is a little iffy, so you might want to turn the volume up on your computer, but it's worth a watch - especially if you've always wanted to see what a willy warmer looks like.

Hope you like it.

making an event of it

We've just set up the big knit as a facebook event if you fancy accepting the invite to remind yourself to go and pick up a nice hat or two.

hat bag hat bag hat bag (and a pair of tights)

Knitting a little hat out of wool wasn't wasn't quite enough for Mrs. Gawthrop. Oh no. She single handedly cast aside the century old practice of sheep wool production by sending us this hat knitted from a Sainsbury's carrier bag and an old pair of tights (clean). Thereby recycling and helping to raise money for Age Concern at the same time. You pushed a boundary, Mrs. Gawthrop, you redefined wool and discombobulated our imaginations.

For these reasons, please accept our humble title of hat of the week.

We'll be voting on the hat of the year next week. Oh yes, it's going to be a hell of a battle, so watch this space.

dr who ya' gonna' call?

Help.

We have a bit of a situation here at fruit towers. Almut Sprigade sent us in an army of psychadelic dalek hats. As we're prone to do with the hats we particularly admire, we put them up on display on one of our picnic benches, so that people wandering past could revel in their technicoloured brilliance.

But there was something crafty about these daleks. Were they really just hats? Or were they actual daleks? Could it be that their multicoloured exterior was simply there to fool us, deflecting attention away from their plans for global domination? First Sainsbury's, then the world. Mwah hah hah. We weren't sure. So we set up a secret camera to record them.

Here we can see them on day one, looking calm - meek even - but eerily still.

 

Two days later and the little blighters seemed to have moved closer to the camera.

   

By the time day three popped round, it was undeniable - the daleks were on the move.

 

Led by the purple one and what looks to be Elmo from Sesame Street, they moved quickly, destroying everything in their wake. We found our hidden camera yesterday amidst a pile of smashed smoothie bottles, its outer casing cracked, flash not working, a tear in its shattered lens.

And then nothing for days. No sign of the army of psychadelic daleks.

Until this afternoon. When a secondary camera caught this ominous scene. IT Sam trapped in the phone box with nowhere to run, the daleks bearing down on him. He doesn't stand a chance.

 

How can we compete against such reckless aggression? What will happen when the daleks reach the phone box? Will IT Sam live to tell the tale?

We'll keep you posted. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions as to how we can deal with this miniature, multicoloured, but very real threat, please let us know. The fate of fruit towers depends on you...

totally tropical

A big knit hat par excellence just found in our big knit pics flickr group. It's even got a little treasure chest if you look closely.

fairy nice

A wild shock of purple hair. A glittering pair of silver moon boots. Two pet toadstools. The biggest, blingest brooch you've ever seen - there's not really much to dislike about this fairytale woodland scene. And it's all happening on top of a little knitted hat. To pick a favourite from the incredible selection of hats that Edith Webb sent us was no easy task. There were pirates, witches, chickens, even Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. All of them stunning in their own right, and all perfectly knitted. We got so excited we had to display the entire collection on a table in fruit towers, for all to enjoy. But we liked the little fairies and their toadstools the best. The toadstools look big and red. The fairy looks very content. And there's something endearing about the way her little legs poke out from that hat. "Look at my new boots," she seems to be saying, "aren't they just wonderful?" They are indeed purple haired fairy. A fine choice of footwear. So nice in fact we're going to make you hat of the week. Well done.