Can you believe that it’s been five years since the innocent Big Knit launched in Ireland? We can’t!

Over the years, this great initiative has managed to raise a whopping €80,000 for Age Action, a charity which promotes positive ageing and better policies and services for older people. 

The Big Knit has helped thousands of older people nationwide but there are many more out there that need the same help that the service has been offering year on year.

And so, the innocent Big Knit is back with a bang! For every hat wearing bottle sold, innocent drinks will be donating 30c to Age Action’s Care and Repair Programme.

65,000 of those adorable little hats are needed to top the bottles to raise the much needed €20,000 which will go directly to Age Action.

“Behind the colour and fun of the innocent Big Knit is a very serious issue:  many older people struggle to remain well and warm in their homes during the winter” said Eamon Timmons of Age Action.

“Ireland has an excess winter death rate of between 1,500 and 2,000 deaths. Funds raised will be used to help run our Care and Repair programme which involves volunteers visiting older people in their homes and providing a DIY service” he continued. 

“The programme runs all year round, but is ramped up over the winter with volunteers doing jobs such as fitting hand rails, changing light bulbs and fitting draught excluders.”

“It is a service which enables older people to remain living with dignity in their own homes" he added.

"Last year alone, our Care and Repair teams helped over 19,500 older people. The innocent Big Knit also helps fund our information service which runs a public information campaign each winter, providing advice for older people on how to remain well and warm at home.”

The last five years has seen over 260,000 little hats created by knitting novices and craft experts across Ireland, as well as a slew of famous Irish faces including Gay Byrne, Karen Koster, John Rocha and Bressie.

Anyone can get involved by downloading the easy-to-follow knitting patterns from thebigknit.ie.

So what are you waiting for? Get those knitting needles out – it’s a lot of fun!