Photo by Marina Ermakova on Unsplash
The country’s biggest bobble hat has been knitted to mark the 20th anniversary of Innocent Drinks and Age UK’s The Big Knit partnership.
The record-breaking bobble hat measures a whopping 23ft tall and is 20ft wide, weighs in at almost 129 stone and is comprised of 545 individual knitted squares and over two million yards of wool.
The Innocent Big Knit is a charity initiative which provides small, knitted hats for smoothie bottles, with every bottle topped by a hat sold raising 25p to help Age UK provide services and support to older people.
To date, the partnership has raised over £3 million for Age UK after collaboratively knitting nearly 11 million hats.
Hannorah Lee, director of partnerships and philanthropy at Age UK, said: “What better way to celebrate the mammoth effort of our knitters, and the impact they’ve had, than by bringing lots of people together for a new knitting challenge.”
The woolly creation comes after research shows that even before the cost of living crisis, 15 per cent of older people – almost 1.7 million – in the UK were living in poverty.
Hannorah added: “We’re extremely thankful to everyone who gets involved with the innocent Big Knit campaign. This year marks 20 years of our partnership with Innocent and, therefore, 20 years of tiny hats making a big difference to older people most in need.
“Older people are facing an incredibly difficult reality and, as we face a cost-of-living crisis, Age UK is receiving more and more calls from older people worried about how they will survive the winter months. Our support is needed more than ever.
“All the money raised through the Big Knit helps Age UK and our network of local Age UKs continue to provide information, support, friendship, and advice to older people when they need us most.”
Knitting enthusiast, Nicola Grey added: “All of these people coming together shows that knitting isn’t ‘done’. This event is bringing knitting to the forefront, which I love, and everyone thinks knitting is for old ladies – it’s not!”
After the unveiling in Nottingham, the mammoth bobble hat will be divided into smaller blankets and donated to charities, including animal shelters and local children’s hospitals in the Nottingham area and beyond.
