In an action packed, double-whammy, triple X, late-night-double-feature-picture-show special, we bring you the results of the final hat of the week of 2010, AND, the results of hat of the year. We're just so good to you.
The final hat of the week saw The Knitter up against The Biggest Little Christmas Tree. Despite its ultimate bling, volume, incredible craft, and fake plastic finger nail, the Tree was pipped to the post by The Knitter. Commended for the genius of the creation, the limitless patience the knitter of The Knitter must have had, and for being an all-round icon of what the Big Knit is all about. Huge congratulations go to Jackie Cryer for her exquisite creation.
Next up, the winner of the hat of the year. Having seen so many hats, we brought four of our favourites together in one place. The competition showed Robin Balboa's defeat of Hairy Claus, and The Last Unicorn beat Binface through to the finals (despite Binface's snazzy sunglasses). The final round was always set to be fierce, but there could only be one winner to take the titluar crown of "hat of all hats". Despite an intense race towards the end of today, at time of going to press, the Unicorn was in the lead with 1656 votes, a mere 28 votes ahead of the Robin. And here he is again, in all his golden horned glory.
Congratulations to Susan Smith for her prize-winning Unicorn.
And there ends the competing hats for 2010. We've seen peas in pods, viking hats fight bears with scarves, a dangley competition, the funky chicken take on a flock of hens (and loose), hat gang wars, a robot hat going against a squid, a mythical battle of a frog prince against a unicorn, an egg and spoon race against the owl and the pussycat, a halloween special, a rafter fighting a pokemon, a common cork hat beating royalty, and a beard off. It's been immense, it's been tense, and it's been a whole lot of hats.
A few celebrities designed hats for this year's Big Knit, and we asked you to guess who made which in our "celebs knit hats" game. Drawn at random, the winner is.. (drum roll please) Moira Millman. Congratulations Moira, a case of smoothies is on its way to you.
And now for the big reveal (in case you hadn't figured them out). First up, Heston Blumenthal.
Betty Jackson.
Lily Cole and Dawn French.
Sir Paul Smith.
Sienna Miller, followed by Sophie Ellis Bextor, then Savannah Miller.
And last, but by no means least, the National Treasure that is June Whitfield, getting her dude on.
For the last few years we've been campaigning to get VAT removed from fruit smoothies. We don't think it makes sense that the government taxes people on something healthy, like our drinks, when food like pizzas and doughnuts aren't taxed. In fact, fruit isn't taxed, but our smoothies are - when all they contain is fruit. Weird.
So we've been scratching our heads with confusion this morning as the government has decided they will continue to charge VAT on fruit smoothies. Ultimately, if the VAT charge was reduced, we could pass the saving on to our drinkers.
We don't want to sound like we're throwing our toys out of the pram here (we probably shouldn't be in a pram anyway - we're fully grown), but if they're going to spend millions of pounds encouraging people to eat more fruit and veg, shouldn't they be making it easier for us to eat more healthily, not harder?
Last week saw Gingerbread Ted take on Pir-hats of the Caribbean. Never before has a seafaring battle seen such swashbuckling swinging cutlasses, and baskets of eels rolling across the deck as lobsters scuttled freely. Ultimately, only one bearded fellow could remain captain of the ship, and Gingerbread Ted took the biscuit, and dunked it in his Captain Crunch. Congratulations go to Cassie Eastham for producing such a fine knit of facial hair.
And on this sad day we come to the last hat of the week of 2010. But cry ye not, because we have quite a treat in store for you. You may have seen them in the press, you may have seen them on the blog, you may even have seen them on film (yes, they're that popular), but now they finally come to hat of the week. We give you: The Knitter VS The Biggest Little Christmas Tree.
In the knitting corner sits The Knitter in her red cardigan.
She has cocktail sticks for knitting needles and a tiny ball of yarn.
She wears her hair in a bun.
And she doesn't need to go to Specsavers, her glasses are just fine as they are.
In the Christmas corner we have the Biggest Little Christmas Tree you're ever likely to see.
This tree has everything on. From a small squirrel hidden under some tinsel.
To a fake silver fingernail.
And it even has little people made out of beads dangling from the bottom.
This may be the hardest choice you've ever had to make, but make it you must, and make it here.
Movember week 3 update: With the Big Knit's hat of the week lending support to Movember (albeit through a beard-off), our Movember team decided to show their support for the Big Knit by wearing hats in this week's update.
Latecomer Paul managed to speed straight into shot, but we thought we'd give him a chance to grab a hat and get involved. But what else has changed between these two pictures? We'll give you a hint: it's village people themed.
Only one more week of growing to go. How knows where the tashes will end up?
From the first round up of hat tagging (see this post) the winners are: Darlene McDermott for her Angelina; Rose Kingscote's take on the Taj Mahal; Luke Davies' pair of iPhones; Jay Smith's 33 hats in a tree; and Cathey Dorain's beanied dog. Smoothies will be on their way, shortly...
And now, to this week's entrants. Remember, the winner of each category wins a case of smoothies.
For celebrity, we have Barack Obama featuring in "The Tomatinator"; a timid shot of HRH the Queen; and a hat about to perform live at a Rodrigo y Gabriela gig at Shepherds Bush.
Best statue or landmark is kicked off by the strawberry gherkin; followed by Empire hat of mind in the Big Apple; and the woollen wharf at, well, Canary Wharf.
Best creative placement brings us recyclotron (100% recycled materials); the VW beanie; and a rather cosy orange.
The most number of hats in one shot (creatively utilised nonetheless) offers us the hatted road; hattosaurus; and the strawberry brigade.
And finally, the best pet category. There really are a lot of photos of pets with hats, but this trio was the cream of the crop. Siamese twin cats; the funky chicken; and a strawberry camel.
I know, what's with all the strawberries? I mean, really, that's quite a lot of strawberries. Your guess is a good as ours.
You can place your vote for the best of this week's hat tagging here.
Although our Big Knit hats are only available in the UK, our hats have been scampering far and wide and well beyond these fair shores. They've been seen floating above the Dead Sea.
Just hanging out with camels in Egypt.
And one little multicoloured guy made it all the way to the Big Apple.
And in other hat tagging news, it's not like the Royal weds-to-be have enough to do right now, but somehow they've also found the time to join in our hat tagging game. Congratulations to the pair of them.
Thanks to Rebecca Flower, Jenna Yee, Ian Hunter (and Gurdeep).
Last week saw the classic cork hat take on the regal crown, and the corks beat the gold. Congratulations to Jo Hazell of Newport, smoothies will be on their way to you shortly.
This week, loosely affiliated to innocent's participation in Movember, we have a beard off. Yes, we do know the difference between a beard and a moustache, but it seemed unfair to shave these guys of their pride and joy.
First up we have Captain's favourite Gingerbread Ted with a mighty beard.
But he's not the only seafaring entrant, as we bring you Pir-hats of the Caribbean. We can't tell where his dreads end and his beard begins, but we love him nonetheless.
We thought it may help you to make your mind up if you got to hear from the hats themselves. So here you go.
In the hairy beardy hatty tash off, which hirsute hat will take the biscuit, and get crumbs stuck to its chin? You decide.
Movember Week 2 update - and things are looking definitely and definitively hairier, and like an odd ensemble TV show. If Dynasty were crossed with Deadwood, via the A Team and Bruce Forsythe.
Ruvan and Matt snuck in for the round-up photo.
George pointed out that his beautiful milky moustache can only be seen by the human eye when close up, so here it is, in all its cappuccino frothy glory.
And Gavin was upset that his tash has moved south to his chin for November.
You can sponsor our team or join the My innocent mo team here.
On Saturday, I said a sad good-bye to my Ethiopian friends, raw-met breakfasts and dancing lessons. (however despite lots of training, I can't say I've mastered their moves yet)
Before I left, I presented my marketing strategy to the charity. The best bit was at the end when Mola spontanously said that it was a really useful document to have which he could see his team implementing. So for any future travellers to Ethiopia, keep your eyes peeled for new AMAR packaging, sold in new exciting places and potentially in new formats...
For me though, it's back to the world of smoothies, with a bit of Ethiopian honey in the back of my mind and heart for ever.
