Innocent bobble hats: Help the Aged Fundraiser

Well, I'm back but I reckon I could get a degree, no :a Phd in the art of procrastination! I have done a little on my doorstop but I have also found trillions of other little jobs to do which always take longer than one thinks they will and so the saga -or is it a legend? -continues .
On a happy note the scarf above was knitted- yes amazingly I can knit- just a little bit- in just 2.5 hours whilst happily sipping a drink and chatting to friends in a local knitting circle, it was in a pub and very pleasant , I was so glad my husband came home in time to take over the babysitting!

The scarf is 10 stitches, all garter st, on 15mm needles and used one ball- which is all I had- of Katia : ''ETHNIC'' - the ball was about 89m long and chunky the ball band recommended a 10 mm needle size .
I didn't have one of those pairs handy and my eldest was still knitting on my 12mm so I tried the 15 mm and am very happy with the result.
More importantly my youngest was thrilled to bits and has worn it constantly now for 2 days.
And as any parent will know and undestand: THAT is the acid test and is WHAT COUNTS.

Having used a ball bought in Delft recently I was drawn to my other Dutch purchases and thought I 'd make myself a trendy little jacket from a pattern in a Dutch sewing magazine......

Well , you can see what happened: Pippa had other ideas!!!

As soon as I spread out my cutting board and the pattern paper : she was onto it!

The picture's too dark, but really she is smiling or was that a smirk ?

She rolled over but was difficult to budge, I did manage in the end and it is at present a WIP, more news to follow on that too... My third - of many more- procrastination efforts - was an idea that I hope will be very useful for lots of other people as well as- very hopefully- a class full of children!!!

In the summer my youngest- then just turned 7 - was wanting to crochet but found it very tricky - she's fine on what she calls ''finger crochet'' which is doing a chain with fingers only : no hook involved.

She can make really long leads or chains like this but what can we do with them all?

So I hit on the idea of some French Knitting and after using a small 4 or 6 pronged one she proved she was good at it and enjoyed it but she wanted to make jumpers( sweaters) for her lily dolls so I bought her a larger French Knitter ( or flower tool) from ''Readicut'': 16 prongs.

More recently I took it off the loom and realised that it could be the body or sleeve of a jumper but also a little hat....She made a pom pom with my latest beloved gadget - a ''Clover ''pom pom maker and I have just sewn them all together to realise it's the exact size for an '' Innocent ''bottle!!!!

So there it is : a 7 year old can make the hats for the fundraising campaign that Innocent are running this Autumn( Fall), they'll donate 50p for each behatted bottle sold this November!

TO: Help The Aged.

Then I was thinking : what if the entire class could make a hat each ( 30 hats!) in one of their craft/design lessons : wouldn't that be a superb fundraising idea as well as good citizenship for the children?!!

And fun to do , teaching fine motor skills and what fun you can have with a ball of wool......

You can include maths: if there are 16 stitches in a row and you'll need to do 20 rows: how many stitches is that?

If you stripe in 2 colours and do one colour 4 rows ( say blue)and the other 2 rows( say lime green) , over a total of 24 rows how many of the blue rows would you do in total?

If you need 40 cm per row: how much yarn do you need for 24 rows?

If 320 sts weigh in at 8 grammes : what can you make with 50 grammes of wool?

Etc etc....

And pom poms are fun to make whether the ''old'' way with cardboard circle-doughnuts or with crafty new tools or gadgets!

So not only did I then make a quick hat myself with some Aran yarn to see how long it would take and the rows, etc

I also e-mailed Readicut and some online yarn suppliers to see if anyone will donate the tools so the school children can have a go.

More to do on that tomorrow.

So finally : here is the'' pattern '' for people who want to use THIS method of making Innocent bottle Bobble hats.

Sorry YES the bottle is EMPTY because their fabulous smoothies do not last more that a few minutes with any one of us!!!

With Aran yarn a 16 prong French Knitter and a toothpick/crochet hook or curved upholstery needle:

Make a loop as if to start crochet and put it on a prong- preferably the one with the starter mark on the front.

Loop the yarn round the back of the next prong then across the front, round the back and onto the next prong all the way around.

Then running the main yarn across the front : pick up the lower loop on the prong and lift over the yarn sitting at the front, continue all the way around.

You can make stripes with any new yarn.

Some DK yarns or fancy textured ones work also.

The bue- mainly Aran- HAT is 24 rows high, the lime and turquoise hat is 20 rows high.

The whole hat including 45mm pom pom weighs 6 grammes.....

To cast off you cut the wool leaving a 50 cm tail, thread this into a yarn needle and run the yarn with needle into each stitch on the porng in turn, then lift them off and pull tight, VOILA A HAT!!!

Work yarn ends into hat neatly.

Make pom pom or tassle and attach to hat.

FINITO.

Post to Innocent hats at the address on their website: www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/thebigknit.

The Big French Knitters are available from : www.Readicut.co.uk

at only £1.79 each excluding P&P.

Readicut do pom pom makers which I haven't ever used but my Clover ones came from www.Rainbowsilks.co.uk

I 'm hoping this will be useful for some if not many children, school classes even?

Who knows, but please feel welcome to comment.