The Big Knit 2011

Age UK and innocent have teamed up again to bring you the eighth annual Big Knit, and thousands of people across the country have been frantically knitting over the last few months to reach a fantastic total of 650,000 hats.

What is the Big Knit?

For the Big Knit, Age UK and innocent ask knitters of all ages to get creative and come up with their own designs for mini-woolly hats to be placed on top of their smoothe bottles and sold in Boots and Sainsbury's stores throughout November. For each hatted bottle sold, 25p is donated to Age UK to help make winter warmer for older people across the UK.

The video below - produced by innocent - gives a neat overview of what the Big Knit is all about:

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Get involved!

A very big thank you to everyone that knitted this year, we are absolutely thrilled to have reached our target of 650,000 hats.

If you would still like to get involved in this year's Big Knit, you can:

1. Pick up your hatted smoothie, please visit Sainsbury's (from 2 November) and in Boots (9 November) until stocks last. For each hatted smoothie bought, Age UK will receive 25p.

2. Take a photo of your hat! Innocent are running a hat tag game on their Facebook page, please visit www.facebook.com/innocent to raise even more money to make winter warmer for older people.

We are hoping to raise £200,000 through this year's campaign.

If you have any queries, please email bigknit@ageuk.org.uk

View more knitting patterns

View our hat gallery

For your viewing pleasure, here's a gallery of just some of the best Big Knit hat designs that we've received for 2011, as well as some that we saw in 2010. If you can't see the pictures below, you can view them by visiting www.flickr.com/photos/ageuk