Big Knit knitter of the week

One of our favourite things about the big knit is getting to know the knitters behind the hats. This week we'd like to introduce you all to Treasa from Dublin. Treasa is what's known around Fruit Towers as a knitting extraordinaire. Here are some wonderful things we'd like to share about Treasa.

Last year Treasa knit loads and loads of hats for the big knit.

This year she has already knit 117 hats.

She's got her gran kids and their friends knitting too.

She can multitask like a pro, knitting and playing bingo at the same time.

If you'd like to chat and knit with Treasa you'll find her at Age Action's knitting groups, open to everyone from 11am every Wednesday and Saturday. Age Action shop on Camden Street..

Here she with her granddaughters Ella & Theresa

For more patterns and knitting info, take a peek here - www.innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

Big knit radio knit off

 

Forget the All Ireland Championship. Inter county rivalry has been taken to a new level...through the power of knitting. Seven local radio stations across the country have signed up to support this year's innocent big knit and over the next few weeks they'll be taking each other on to see whose listeners are the nation's greatest knitters. Tune into your local radio station below and make sure to get your hats into the station by the 9th of September. They'll count them up and send them into us here in Fruit Towers.
 
To keep track of which station is knitting their way to the top, check out our radio knit off knitometer on our facebook page.
Here's a list of stations to tune into to follow and take part in the big knit radio knit off:

Highland Radio - The Shaun Doherty Show & the Steven Lynch Show

West Radio  - Tommy Marren Show

Tipp FM - Tipp Today Show with Seasmus Martin

Shannonside - The Joe Finnegan Show

Northern Sound - The Joe Finnegan Show

Midlands 103FM - Midlands Today with William Faulkner

KCLR - The Sue Nunn Show

98fm The Steve Cooper Show

For big knit info and knitting patterns, check out the innocent big knit homepage here innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

Hat of the week August 19th

We think last week's hat of the week winner, a fisherman hat, must have been, emm fishing, because this week's hat of the week (and catch of the day) is...you've guessed it, a fish. This woolly wonder was knitted by Fiona Finn from Dublin, who has already knitted an amazing 70 hats. There's a smoothie hamper it's way to Fiona.

Want claim your spot on the big knit wall of fame? Get your hats in early to be in with a chance. Find out everything you need to know about the big knit right here. innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

Kids' juicy drink on mummypages.ie

 

We've teamed up with mummypages.ie to find some mums to test our our brand new kids' juicy drink. Mummy pages is an awesome Irish website that loves mums and kids just as much as we love fruit.

If you'd like to sign up to the test group, take a look at the innocent kids' juicy drink page here on mummypages.ie

 

 
 

 

 

Hat of the week august 12th

After Ger O'Dowd took the first hat of the week we couldn't wait to choose the next week's hat. With exquisite detail and wonderful knitting, this week's hat knocked our socks off when it arrived in Fruit Towers Dublin. A hat so detailed that even it's details have details. The knitter of this week's hat and newly crowned knitting queen is Fiona Meagher from Cork who knitted this amazing fisherman hat.

Want claim your spot on the big knit wall of fame? Get your hats in early to be in with a chance. Find out everything you need to know about the big knit right here. innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

Kids' juicy drink competition winner

A couple of weeks ago we had a competition to give away a lovely hamper full of our brand new refreshing kids' juicy drink. We asked you which two fruits are used to make our new kids' juicy drink. The answer was of course apple and orange.

Without further ado the winner of the kids' juicy drink hamper is..... Lily Reilly. Thanks to everybody who entered the competition. Lily, we'll be in touch.

 

Footballers, tennis players, rockstars and fashion desingers all break out the knitting needles.

Whoever said knitting is just something your granny does missed out on yesterday's big knit press launch where a crack team of sport stars, fashion designers, rock stars and veteran knitters got stuck into some knitting to help support this years innocent Big Knit and Age Action Ireland.

We'd like to give a massive innocent smoothies thanks to everybody who took the time to get involved and do a little knitting.

We'll let the photos do the talking...

Aidan Price, Keith Buckley and Barry Murphy from Bohemians FC kindly gave their support to this years innocent big knit.

Up and coming Irish fashion designer Heidi Higgins also came along and brought some exquisite hats she knitted earlier using beautiful yarns from her Autumn collection. She was joined by Ireland's hottest tennis talent, Conor Niland, who took break from his busy training schedule to do a little knitting.

Paul, Bernard and Eamon from Irish rock band Royseven, took a break from touring to learn how to knit. Big knit veteran Delo from Age Action Ireland was at hand to give them a crash course.

Mary from Age Action, a knitting legend around these parts, teaches the lads from Bohemians FC how to knit a little hat.

Heidi Higgins and Delo from Age Action show off some wonderful big knit little hats.

Barry from Bohemians FC, Paul from Royseven, Heidi Higgins and Conor Niland join Delo from Age Action for a group shot.

To find out more about the innocent Big Knit and to download knitting patterns, take a peak here innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

First big knit hat of the week of 2011

It's Friday, it's kind of sunny out and..... the most coveted prize in the world of knitting is back: The innocent Big Knit hat of the week. Like a movie star winning an Oscar, a knitter earning the hat of the week title is destined for infinite super stardom. They also get some lovely smoothies in the post and a mention on our blog and facebook page.

Without further ado, here's this year's first innocent big knit hat of the week. Beautifully crocheted by knitter extraordinaire Ger O'Dowd, from Dublin.

 

Want claim your spot on the big knit wall of fame? Get your hats in early to be in with a chance. Find out everything you need to know about the big knit right here. innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

hot and bothered

...that's how some of our indian mangoes have been feeling of late.  When it comes to climate change, the majority of conversations still use words like 'when' - when it happens, when the temperature rises, when the seas rise etc.  Of course the reality is that our climate is already changing, and more so in some regions than others at this point in time.  The Western Gatts of India is one of those regions, and that is where some of our delicious alphonso mangoes come from.

When our indian farmers started talking to us about the problems, we decided it was important to make sure we did our bit to help cool the mangoes down, and keep the farmers in the mango business.  Fast forward through many many conversations, and we had a set of recommendations from a local agricultural institute, a consultant and 18 farmers working with our supplier, ready to trial some new techniques in the world of mango growing.

We have just received the first report from the project, and despite only being able to implement 2 of the 5 techniques this season we have seen some great results. Farmers participating in the trial were able to use less agrochemicals on the trees and still managed to have a lower incidence of pest and disease attack than a standard farm (saving them lots of money as well as protecting the environment).  Plus, the trial farms also found that they had a higher yield of mangoes per tree.

Next season we will be implementing all 5 of the recommendations, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we get even better results.  Needless to say the farmers participating in the project are pretty happy that they can still produce great mango in a changing climate (and save some cash at the same time), and we are thrilled that we still get great tasting mango and have managed to help out in tackling this challenge.

A big thanks to our suppliers, and everyone involved in the project so far.  I'm off to grab a mango passionfruit smoothie to celebrate.

Create your own Big Knit event.

Let's knit together, right now, in sweet harmony...so our version of that song goes anyway. With little hats for this year's innocent Big Knit already starting to arrive into fruit towers we're delighted to show off our latest knitting innovation. If you've ever needed an excuse to hold your very own knitting event, we've got just the thing for you. Check out the your big knit app on our facebook page. It's got everything you need (except tea and biscuits) from downloadable knitting event invites, bunting, and patterns for all levels of knitters to help you hold your own big knit knit-in.

Remember, 25c from each behatted little bottle of innocent smoothie goes towards Age Action Ireland to help keep older people warm in winter. If you need any help or big knit info feel free, to pop into fruit towers Dublin, or call the innocent banana phone on 01-6644100.

Also, do let us know about your event and we might be able to send you some smoothies to help with the knitting.

For more patterns and knitting info, take a peek here - www.innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit

Check out some photos taken at knitting events last year.

The lovely ladies from the Ballincollig knitting group.

Trinity College Knit Soc also organised a knit-in for members.