Volunteers from across the country have come together to complete a very special challenge - to make the UK's largest ever knitted hat. The Big Knit - a collaboration between drinks company Innocent and the charity Age UK - saw the knitted masterpiece come to life after research showed that around 1.7 million elderly people were living in poverty across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Since it launched in 2003, the Big Knit has seen over 11 million tiny hats placed on Innocent smoothie bottles and more than £3 million raised to support the elderly in the process. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the partnership between Innocent Drinks and Age UK, knitters from across the country joined together to knit the 23ft tall and 20ft wide hat with a 1m tall pompom. The giant bobble hat is made up of 545 individual knitted squares and an estimated two million yards of yarn.
Attendees at the event, which was held in Nottingham on Monday (January 30), included the city's Knit and Natter craft group, Nottingham Trent University’s knitting society, Knit Soc, members of Fairway View Care Home, and an assisted living facility unit whose residents knit cosy blankets for Nottingham Hospital. Also among the knitters was Welsh TikTok star Lewis Leigh.
