It’s that time of year when a certain smoothie brand (owned by Coca Cola) likes to indulge in a bit of PR fluff and invite people to knit tiny hats for plastic bottles that neither want or need a hat.

I’ve written about this before and why I generally prefer to knit hats for humans who need actual warmth, as opposed to plastic bottles that don’t - indeed the other year we had a Hats for Humans KAL which was great fun.

This year, time is a bit more limited but if the recent adverts for said knitted hats have got you thinking along the charity lines please do think about knitting for the fabulous Big Issue North who are asking for knitted items - hats, scarves etc - to distribute to people they are working with this winter. All items are gratefully received although they prefer natural/neutral colours if possible.

And if you are looking for a good basic beanie pattern you might like to know that I’ve recently added a free download to my ‘free patterns’ section here. It’s a basic hat knit in mistake rib and uses sock yarn held double - it knits up quickly and is ideal for using up some of those single skeins of sock yarn in your stash.

If you are looking for more suggestions on charity knitting you can find a comprehensive (and frequently updated) list over at The Knitting Goddess blog page.