al gore, prince charles and our special prize

scruffy Anthony and gorgeous Emma get the prize (fourth and fifth from left)

Prince Charles, Vice President Al Gore, influential speakers on global issues, flattering us and telling us we were helping to make a difference. Whatever next?

The reason all of these dignitaries are standing with us is because we won a National Example of Excellence from Business in the Community for our Supergran campaign. As well as the prize, Al Gore said Emma's dress was very nice. We're trying very hard not to let it all go to our heads. My mother punctured my balloon by labelling me a scruff for not wearing a tie.

Thanks again to everyone who knitted hats and to Sainsbury's and EAT who sold them for us. More about our plans for this year coming soon...

where should we plant this tree?

 

We got to go the Mayor of London's office recently, to receive our 'Big Tick' award for our Supergran campaign. The awards are described as "awards for the positive impact responsible business operations and activities have in the marketplace, the workplace, the environment or in the community." And naturally we're chuffed to bits to win one.

But the question is this - where should we plant the oak sapling that we got as a prize? We think west London could do with a new tree, but we want to put it somewhere where it's going to be happy and grow up big and strong.

Does anyone have any ideas?

kat's hats

Kat has just been away for the weekend to see her Dad on Hayling Island and took three balls of wool and a pair of knitting needles with her. She came back having learnt lots of clever knitting techniques in a symphony of blues (she's our designer so knows all about colour pallets and hues and that). Here are the fruits of her labour in the form of lots of woolly hats for Supergran.

Fruits of her labour. Get it?

how the bottles get their hats

Ruth and Tars went up to help put Supergran hats on the bottles the other day. Some of the hats get put on in the shops, but seeing as you knitted 220,000 hats this year, we tried to find a more mechanical way to get them on. You've got to be quick...

poodles

In Holland, Supergran is known as SuperOma. Some of the Dutch grannies are really going for it, with these knitted poodles being the shining example. UK knitters may need to raise their game.

trend setters

It's not all about little hats you know. Fashion's hottest trendsetters, Australian penguins, are currently sporting chunky-knit jumpers to keep them warm after a nasty oil spill meant they had to have their feathers cleaned. The Tasmanian Conservation Trust received 15,000 hand knitted sweaters from volunteers to help keep the little critters warm.

deck the shelves with hats of woolly

Tra la la la la...la la la la

Today is a happy day for many people, Tomkat have been married for 2 days (maybe more), James Bond is doing well at the box office but even more importantly our smoothies with hats have finally reached the shelves of EAT. After 6 months of knitting, hundreds of thousands of darned master pieces are now available to buy. You can find out where your nearest EAT cafe is here (London/ Brighton/ Birmingham/ Manchester/ Cambridge/ Canterbury/Leicester). If you don't live within travelling distance to one of these towns you only have to wait until next week (Monday the 27th) when even more hats will be gracing the shelves of your local Sainsbury's.

There are literally thousands of individually hand knitted hats out there - no two are the same. You can share your bobbled finds on our Supergran flickr group. And don't forget, ten shillings (50 new pence) from every behatted bottle sold goes directly towards keeping older people warm this winter, a great cause if ever there was one.

super sketching

Tansy's cousin Rose has just sent us this lovely illustration of a supergran knitter in action. You may remember we featured Tansy's sister Lettice 'walls of wool' a couple of weeks ago, it seems the whole family has a supergran creative connection. You can see more of Rose's fab illustrations here. Oh and it's her birthday tomorrow.
Happy birthday Tansy's cousin Rose.

Other great news from supergran is that the hatometer has reached its total of 175,000 hats. This is particularly good as we've still got more hats coming in and means we're going to be able to raise even more money for Age Concern. If you still have any hats at home please stick on the bobbles and post them off to us, we're accepting hats up until the end of November. Post your hats to:
little woolly hats, innocent, 3 The Goldhawk Estate, Brackenbury Road, London, W6 0BA

heap o' hats

Supergran hats are arriving by the sackful. Thanks for all your help, and if you have any energy/wool left, please keep knitting.

beside the seaside

This picture of our smoothies in supergran hats was taken by Paul in Porthleven, Cornwall and posted to our supergran flickr group. In his own words he "just perched them all on a table and that was it, apart from sea breeze blowing the hats off the Curlys". I love the quality of light in the shot, it's the sort of light you only get on a crisp autumn day by the sea, you'd spend a good few hours getting the same effect in a studio or with proper lights I expect.

The hats were knitted by Paul's mum (pictured below with hats and her cat marble) who is just recovering from having broken her arm. Get well soon Paul's mum.

And here's a nice big wave crashing on Porthleve beach just incase you don't get to go for a walk after your Sunday lunch today. (I imagine the red flag on the left means that it wasn't safe to swim on that day.)