Hats off to charity

The upcoming Big Knit will raise funds for Age Action, writes Rachel Borrill.

YES, it’s that time of year again. Get out your knitting needles, chose your hat pattern and click away. The innocent Big Knit is here — raising money to keep Ireland’s older people warm during the Winter months.

For the last three years, Deló McArdle and her friend Mary Walsh have got out their knitting and crocheting needles for the Big Knit and have made well over a thousand tiny woolly hats each.

“We have great fun, it is very sociable,” says Deló, a retired solicitor’s clark from Dublin. “We have a great laugh and put the world to rights as we knit. We meet at our local Age Action shop every Wednesday lunchtime and Saturday morning.’’

Mary, a retired carer also from Dublin, agrees and says she believes the knitting keeps her mind active too. “I feel guilty if I am at home and I am not knitting. It is great to feel you are doing something, raising awareness and a few shillings for Age Action too.’’

This year the Big Knit is aiming for 80,000 woolly hats, which will be put on the tops of innocent smoothies and go on sale at the end of January 2013. For every drink sold, the Innocent drinks manufacturing company will give Age Action 25c towards their Care and Repair programme.

Last year’s Big Knit raised €20,000 which in turn helped more than 13,000 older people in Ireland have their homes repaired and made warm for winter.

Eamon Timmins, CEO of Age Action, says more than 2,000 older people died during the winter last year from cold-related conditions.

“They died because they cannot afford to heat their homes to a safe level. The money raised from the innocent Big Knit will help address this crisis by enabling our volunteers to visit more older people in their homes to carry out some DIY jobs and ensure they are well,’’ he says.

Helen McNamara, the brand manager at Innocent, says there are around 10,000 people knitting for this year’s campaign. It is easy to get involved, as there are knitting groups in libraries and Age Action shops, as well as people doing it by themselves.

“We have had lots of lovely letters coming in, one from a lady age 87 who had been in a bad car accident. She knitted 20 hats for us and said it helped her in so many ways, including getting her confidence back,’’ Helen explains.

“Then last week we had a letter from a lady who was age 97 and had knitted 100 hats.’’ It doesn’t matter if you are not the best knitter in the world, all hats are accepted with thanks. The designs can range from the classic bobble hat, to ones of Jedward, Santa, and fairy hats.

“Last year we had a great lady from Donegal who knitted hats in Dublin colours with the Sam Maguire cup on top. This year we have lots of hats to do with the Olympics,’’ says Helen.

Knitter Mary Walsh prefers to stick to one pattern, and will crochet thousands of hats in different colours, and Deló Mcardle will invent new designs. “At the moment I am doing lots of frogs and octopuses. I get a great kick out of doing them. But by the time I have finished sometimes it feels like the octopus has 60 legs,’’ she says.

¦ Hats should be sent to The Innocent Big Knit, Fruit Towers, 120 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2 by Fri, Nov 30. For information, see www.innocentdrinks.ie/ thebigknit