knit-in at Fabrications

Please meet Barley - who runs Fabrications. Nice needles indeed.

They run lots of courses and have a lovely one on a Sunday where you can go along for a cup of tea and a biscuit whilst you pick up some more knitting tips. Give her a bell if you'd like to have a chat about it.

We just wanted to say a big thank you to Barley and her friends at Fabrications. They have been busy helping us to spread the Big Knit word this year and had some special Big Knit knit-ins - just look at the photo below.

Sandra's last hats

Here's a little message from Sandra. She was a total beginner at the beginning of this year's Big Knit and sent us a photo of her very first hat. She's developed into quite a pro - the dinosaur is our absolute favourite.

"When I had the impulse to learn to knit some hats for innocent this year, my utmost ambition was to make 5 hats (one a week). But I got so addicted to the needles that I made 40 little ones even before learning stocking stitch. It felt so good when I managed to produce a 'Perfect Pink' - the first pattern on the Big Knit guide - I was finally a beginner!

I wondered if I could reach 50 and get to the intermediate pattern - the 'green stripe'. It was a new found freedom, an explosion of colours and...stripes. I wondered if I could get to 100 hats and make the ladybird pattern - that was an ambition.

The day before the deadline I went for it. Made my very own ladybird and teapot and a witch's hat. And a dinosaur.

I can't quite believe I actually learnt to knit - I think I'll try to make finger puppets for my niece in time for Christmas. And maybe some more little hats for next year.

Whatever this has been an amazing learning curve (I got to 110 hats in the end). So thanks, innocent.

And it's totally bye from me for now - until next year...

Sandra xx"

the hats are coming

The launch of The Big Knit 2007 is nearly upon us. Our smoothies are currently being hatted-up by busy hands in woolly gloves as we speak. They're then put into special boxes so that Sainsbury's know they've got some very special stock to look out for..

A few behatted bottles have already started to appear in Sainsbury's stores here and there. We're hoping that we'll have made it out to all stores by this Wednesday Nov 7th. Keep an eye out for the unique supermarket spectacle that is a shelf-full of smoothies in hand knitted booble hats, it will be for a limited time only.

If you get any good pictures don't forget upload them to our Big Knit flickr group. There are some great smoothie related prizes up for grabs again.

heavily branded goods

For this year's little woolly hat project (aka The Big Knit) we thought we'd ask some famous people to design a hat or two for us. We've already shown you some right royal designs you might remember.

Now we give you the above creation by telly's Russell Brand. He sent us the below design based on his own bouffant 'do' and then our expert knitting friends at Rowan yarns have made it into reality for us.

We've also had designs from all of these people aswell amongst others. Let us know whose hat you'd like to see next and we'll post it up...

Fearne Cotton

Denise Van Outen

Chico

Joanna Lumley

JK (Radio 1)

Chris Tarrant

Lil Chris (Rock School)

Jeremy (Arcade Fire drummer)

Kirsten O'Brien (CBBC )

dancing hats

Margaret W was pretty shocked when she saw her hats start dancing. So were we.

a card made by tim

Tim made this card for his mum Heather who's been busy knitting us lots of hats for the Big Knit this year. We thought it was pretty special and wanted to share it with you. Thank you Tim.

mrs mouse

At Fruit Towers we absolutely love this hat. It’s sitting on my desk at the moment and has attracted lots of passing interest. Mrs Mouse (as I’ve temporarily named her), was knitted by our Heather’s Mum, Mrs Callan. Mrs Callan has been busy knitting hats with the girls at St Joseph’s Convent School for the Big Knit and we can’t wait to see how they got on.

We’ve been having a little debate about whether Mrs Mouse is a fictional character and have decided that it has a fantastically Beatrix Potter-esque feel to it. After careful research on the Peter Rabbit site, I concluded that it was a pretty good match to Hunca Munca.

However I’ve since discovered that Heather’s nickname used to be ‘Mouse’ – and so maybe this is what gave inspiration for this lovely design. The mystery continues – but either way, I’m sure you’ll agree with us that this is a special hat. My favourite feature is the bonnet. And the whiskers are pretty cool too.

keeping it crossed

We'd like to share these hats with you. Whilst we took the opportunity to feel decidedly smug, it was a poignant reminder for our Mike (who's helping to open the hats and just happens to be Australian)...fingers crossed for the big one. bkc

"...London is not the best place to live for an Australian when you are beaten by England in the rugby world cup. I had hoped that I and everyone else could quickly forget about this aberration and we could all get on with our lives sledge free. But alas, this is not the case.  With England going on to beat their sworn enemies in France, the impending final is a hot topic for conversation by the smoothie fridge at Fruit Towers.

I thought it timely then to show you one of my favourite groups of hats to pass by my eager eyes, a world cup special, knitted by Jane C from Sainsbury's Braintree in Essex.  A very topical submission to the Big Knit, and one of my favourites.

There’s only a few days left to submit your hats, and I would really like to work some overtime next week to pay my co-workers for some bets that I may have lost on the aforementioned match, so please knit like crazy and send them in. Mike"

more royal news

After Prince Andrew's visit on Monday we gave him a few hat design cards to take away. And what do you know? He gave them to Sarah (the Duchess of York) and their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, who have sent us their designs. Witness their work below.

And here's a story about Margaret (star of our Big Knit film) trying to get the prince to wear her hat, an offer that he politely declined.

yankee doodle dandy

Hello

This week I thought I'd send a pic of a Thanksgiving hat, and the pattern for how it was done. We had Key Lime Pie to celebrate...not as traditional as Pumpkin but it was yummy.

Anyway, knit using the normal hat pattern, but start off with large needles, then after a few rows use medium needles, small for the middle bit, medium and back to large again. That will give you the 'dip' in the middle of the hat. It's a great cheat's way to make a hat that gets narrow in the middle, without having to reduce and increase stitches!

Once you made the body of the hat, you can crochet a brim onto the edge. Just crochet two double stitches into each cast on stitch. It's really easy! You can add a brim to any sort of hat...maybe a witches' hat for Halloween.

I'm off on holiday next week...and I'm taking my needles with me!

Happy knitting
Debs