The Big Knit
Join us to knit little hats for innocent smoothie bottles and help raise money to support older people in Solihull!
The Big Knit 2024/25
We are thrilled that the Big Knit is back, and even better, we will now receive 30p per hat - an increase from 25p in previous years!
The campaign is now officially underway, so please, grab your knitting needles and crochet hooks and get involved, helping to raise funds to enable us to provide much-needed services and support to older people in Solihull.
Can you help us beat last year's total of 13,462 hats?!
Illustration by Meghan Allbright
Did you know two fifths of older people say the TV is their only friend? Loneliness can be a big problem in later life, and as many as 200,000 older people said they hadn’t spoken to friends or family for over a month.
The Big Knit is a partnership with innocent drinks which started in 2003. By asking Solihull's knitters to create little hats, the campaign raises funds to help us to be here for older Solihull residents who need help in later life, whether they are lonely, struggling with the cost of living, feel digitally excluded, or need our help in another way.
Hats knitted for Age UK Solihull help us make a big difference to the lives of older people in Solihull. Each hat that you send to us raises 30p, and the money raised can help us ensure older people are warm and well during the winter months, or help us decrease loneliness with our Linking People Together service. Your hats will then be put on top of innocent smoothie bottles to be sold in the shops in the winter.
The Big Knit can also bring people together to knit and have a chat with one another.
If you’ve ever bought a smoothie or knitted a hat, thank you for being part of the Big Knit.
Hat target
Our target for this campaign is 15,000 hats.
For the last campaign, you fabulous knitters sent us 13,462 hats which we received 25p each for, meaning a total of £3,365.50 was raised.
We would be absolutely thrilled to beat last year's total and reach our target of 15,000 hats, especially as the donation has now been increased to 30p per hat!
Deadlines
The next deadline to get your hats to us is 31 March 2025.
The final deadline for this campaign is 1 July 2025.
Feel free to send hats to us any time between these deadlines, and we will hold onto them until we do our next shipment to innocent.
Getting your hats to us
You can post or drop* your hats to us at: Age UK Solihull, Lower Ground Floor, The Core, Solihull Central Library, Homer Road, Solihull, B91 3RG.
*If you go to the door at the bottom of the slope between the library and the entrance for cars to Touchwood Car Park and ring the bell for Age UK Solihull, someone will collect them from you.
Please leave your name and contact details so we can thank you at the end of the campaign!
Or email us at fundraising@ageuksolihull.org.uk and we may be able to arrange to collect them from you.
Download our patterns
Basic patterns
Intermediate patterns
Expert patterns
Want to know more?
Contact our Fundraising Team on 0121 704 7842 (leave a message) or email fundraising@ageuksolihull.org.uk
If your query relates to Winter Warmth contact 0121 704 8080.