05/10/2021, written by Senior Executive in Nursing Care, Saran Estebanez
Despite difficult recent times, Hugh James colleagues and co have yet again risen to the occasion and produced a bumper crop of hats for Age UK’s Big Knit. On Friday we handed over 1,000 hats to Age Cymru’s Cardiff office.
This is a valued fundraiser with Innocent donating 25p to Age UK for each smoothie bottle sold wearing natty headgear.
The Nursing Care department has been involved with Age UK’s Big Knit since 2010, submitting over 12,000 hats to date. Mini bobble hats are knitted and sent to Age UK by a set deadline which are then bounced onto Innocent to adorn their smoothie bottles in supermarkets across the UK.
Enthusiastic and sometimes cajoled knitters across Hugh James have always pulled out all the stops, ensuring an impressive array of hats are submitted, with family and friends helping to bump up the figures.
In the past, we’ve had ‘Knit and Natter’ lunchtime sessions where skills have been shared over sandwiches and frustrations thoroughly enjoyed. We’ve even experienced an intense ‘Knitathon’, using a corporate social responsibility day to increase production.
However, over the last 18 months, knitting lessons have been at arm’s length. A few sessions over MS Teams ensured knitting kinks were ironed out. Trying to identify slipped stiches and showing how to cast on proved to be more of a challenge in Teams. Yet, at the same time, sessions were a happy distraction, having non-work related catch-ups with colleagues.
Much is reported about the benefits of knitting, proving to reduce stress and lower blood pressure. Tom Daley is particularly vocal, lauding the mental health benefits which saw him knit his way through the Olympics. Picking up a pair of needles when times are overwhelming or chaotic can do wonders for calming the mind.