excellent development scoops another award

The innocent foundation has been supporting Excellent Development on a three year programme helping community groups in rural Kenya to develop water and soil conservation projects. Last year Graham took time out from his spreadsheets to visit the innocent-supported project in Meka and earlier this year JT swapped Shepherd's Bush for Kola to set up a computer network for the ED office in Kenya.

As the programme drew to end it's been really exciting to look back and see that the Meka community group had smashed the targets they set at the beginning of the project - we were expecting them to build 5 sand dams, plant 9,000 trees and dig some terracing, but they have managed to build 6 dams, plant over 12,000 trees and dig nearly 18km of terracing. Life in rural Kenya revolves around the availability of water so the lasting impact of these achievements will continue to benefit the community for years to come.

And as if that wasn't enough Excellent Development has just been recognised at the Third Sector Excellence Awards by winning the "Small Charity, Big Achiever" category. The judges were impressed by how much has been accomplished since the organisation was founded in 2002 and the support given helping communities to build sustainable futures.

Well done from everyone at innocent.

(This blog post was written by our Graham).

the crowd holds its breath

...and the winner of last week's hat of the week is.....

Herbert Hoodie knitted by the marvelous Rachel Phillips. Herbert stormed to victory pulling in no fewer than 1209 votes.

Rachel, you have our undying admiration and a place on the coveted plinth. Perhaps most excitingly of all there's a case of our finest making its way to you as we speak.

If you fancy knocking Rachel off the top spot then you know what to do. We've a huge target to make this year so please do keep sending in those hats, hooded or otherwise. Anyone searching for a source of inspiration can do much worse than having a look here at our Flickr Big Knit Pool. We think the Fortis Knitters could be in for a 'highly commended' ribbon when their hats arrive.

you asked, we listened

Back in April when we launched our first ever banana free recipe - kiwis, apples and limes - we got in touch with everyone who'd ever written, emailed or called to ask us to make a smoothie without bananas and sent them a free voucher to have a bottle on us.

After we'd sent the vouchers out, lots of people then started sending us lovely thank you notes and emails.

'Just a quickie to say thanks for my voucher. I went straight out and bought the banana free smoothie and thinks it's great. So have now sent my hubby out to buy three more cartons...Thanks for listening, Linda x'

'Bin those bananas for good! Even my kid will drink it. We call it 'Kermit-in-a-blender'. Lovely. Thanks, Tracey'

'I am just amazed that mine (and obviously others) emails actually made a difference. Thank you. I can't wait to try it. Kind regards (from a very happy 'Banana Free' customer'), Lizzie W'

'At last - I have been waiting for years, since I asked you to do this and now you've granted me your wish, Many thanks, Sophie R'

'We wanted to say how impressed we were that some real human took the trouble to hand write the card that came with the token. In this world of machinery...it is really refreshing to find somewhere that still values the personal touch. The Cook Family'

We love to hear what you think. After all, one way conversations are pretty rubbish.

So if you ever have something that you want to tell us about the stuff we make or have suggestions on how we can make it better, you can always let us know on our rate and review system.

As my grandma used to say, shy bairns get nowt.

loo of the future

On her recent sojourn to France, our senior designer Kat happened upon 'the future', smack bang in the middle of the ladies loo of Orléans' poshest restaurant.

 

Being a collector of all things exciting, new and spinny, she made a little video of said toilette on her camera.

Not that we're exactly sure why cellophane whizzing round at 13mph makes a loo seat more hygenic but then who are we to question the future?

leap into fruit towers

We had Suzanne and Adam from Leap Anywhere TV in the other day for a video camera assisted look around fruit towers. Jess gave them a guided tour and our Ben imparted some very wise words of wisdom to the pair. Have a watch if you've got a couple of minutes to spare.

(All the jumping about in the car park is a reference to 'Leap' Anywhere TV by the way, we don't do that every time someone visits us with a video camera. Just so you know.)

the cyclops pig experiment

We like this, a lot. From @khaitom via twitter.

We have some good times over on our twitter feed. You should come and join us.

and the hat of the week goes to...

Last week, Pigtail Penny and Sunshine Sheila did battle for the coveted title of Big Knit Hat of the Week.

Sunshine Sheila donned the yellow sunflower hat and using the broad rim and glowing centre, shone like the Sun from her side of the ring. On the otherside, Pigtail Penny, with her lustrous brown locks and twinkling blue eyes, pulled out some street style drop kicks and the odd half nelson here and there. The crowd were going wild, Penny and Sheila were locking hats until suddenley, Pigtail Penny went for the upper cut straight into the roundhouse move and whupped Sunshine Sheila into next Tuesday.

Congratulations to her trainer, Hazel from Watford, for helping Penny win the Hat of the Week. A case of delicious smoothies are winging their merry way to you right now.

it had to happen sometime

go do

Last week myself and Ceri (doing our very best catalogue poses below) drove a grassy van down the entire length of the M4 to West Wales for a long weekend at the Do lectures.

(picture by talented camera pointer James Bowden)

We rambled, ate hearty food, drank tea, chatted to strangers who became friends, chatted to Ade, went bird watching and slept under the stars in kata's (Swedish tipis). And learnt loads. Like loads and loads. In the spirit of 'sharing is caring' we've now started to spread some of the lessons we picked up throughout fruit towers. Here's the left overs from a session we did yesterday.

If you want to decipher the mystic one liners we'll give a curated guide to the best of this year's lectures once all the videos are up online. Done?

the first Big Knit 'Hat of the Week' of 2009

Last week we officially reinstated the thrilling 'Hat of the Week' competition. Each and every week we'll select the crème of the woolly hatted crop and ask you to vote for your . Sort of like X Factor but without the premium rate phone calls. The winning hat will then take pride of place on the plinth in reception and the proud knitter will win a case of our finest drinks. Maybe there'll be some sort of grand hat-off in November. Who knows where it'll take us?  

Going head to head last week we had the Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai inspired hat from Alison of the 'Priddy Purlers' and the 'Majestic Mouse' from Mrs Joan Lockett. Who was first to the claim the coveted spot upon the plinth of purlfection? The crowd holds its breath. Presenting the winner of 2009's first Hat of the Week competition... 'Majestic Mouse'.

 

Well done Mrs Lockett. A case of our finest is on its way to you as we speak.  To vote on this weeks entries just click here. Dust off your needles and grab the nearest sheep. It's time to start knitting.