NOT MANY people have been venturing outside lately without a hat. That would be on account of it being horridly cold and the well-known fact that we lose much of our warmth through the place on top of our brains. But if you are observant, you will have noticed that there are many hats being worn inside these days also.
These eye-catching little hats come on top of bottles of Innocent smoothies, and are currently being sold around the country. They come in all kinds of colours, stripes and styles. There are sheep, pineapples, strawberries, hearts, cherries and fruits that do not exist in nature. To date, 76,764 of these fairy-sized hats have been knitted by volunteers all over Ireland, including schoolchildren. One woman alone knitted 900 hats.
For every Innocent smoothie sold wearing a little hat, 25 cents of the sale goes to Age Action Ireland. The money will be used to help fund their information service, which at this time of year is especially focused on how elderly people can keep warm in their own homes. Far more elderly people die during the winter than at any other time of the year. Age Action is aware that some people are fearful of putting on the heating, due to the high bills they received earlier this year after the unusually cold January and February.
This is only the second time the “Big Knit” has been done in Ireland, but it is long-established in Britain and across Europe. It happened here for the first time in 2008, but the number of hats knitted then was much lower: 20,000. This time, the take-up was greater.
It’s hoped that next year the project will continue again, but it may take another form. Among the ideas floating in the ether right now are people knitting full-sized hats, to be sold in Age Action charity shops, or knitting squares for blankets that could be auctioned off or similarly sold in their charity shops.
That’s next year. This year, be-hatted smoothie bottles will remain on sale throughout December, or until they are all sold out. What you do with a miniature hat once you’ve consumed your smoothie is up to you. You could always try leaving them out with the carrots and the glass of milk for one of Santa Claus’s elves.
