Today we spoke to a lady called Alison, who was calling on behalf of her daughter Anjani.

Anjani has a bear whose name is Oscar. I think it's important at this juncture to point out that Oscar is actually a girl bear. Apparently as Anjani and (all right thinking people) know Oscar is, in fact, a name for girls and not a name for boys. Now that's cleared up, we can move on.

So, picture the scene, Alison Anjani and Oscar all went shopping this week. Conscious of a bit of a nip in the air Oscar was hoping to buy something for the current Autumn/Winter season. After a disheartening afternoon traipsing round the shops they were about to go home defeated, when to everyone's surprise the local Sainsbury's delivered big time.

Here's Oscar looking stylish in outfit one 'ear flap hat'

and here reclining like a pro in outfit two 'blue frill hat'

We hadn't thought of the Big Knit as an opportunity to expand your wardrobe, but if it worked for Oscar it might well work for you. So if you know of any under dressed bears, or hamsters with cold ears, or even have some dreary boots you want to jazz up then you know where to look.

Have a lovely weekend and happy shopping.

Said the hats...

Pictured from left to right we have hat hat, ghost hat, spider hat, pumpkin hat and cat hat all courtesy of Mrs Rosalind Good from Berkshire.

Any remaining hats need to be working their way to Fruit Towers as soon as possible where we are taking off our shoes and socks and readying ourselves for the grand annual hat count. Think of us this weekend whilst you're holding hands, shuffling through leaves, reading papers and roasting food stuffs. We'll be up to our necks in little woolly items.

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to get out the wool this year, and remember there's still a little time left, so please do package up any late comers.

Have a great weekend.

Bertram the boss eyed bee bombs.Poor Bertram.

Knit Wars stepped up a gear this week with the fight to end all fights, the clash of the titans, the ultimate woolly battle to glory or (as we like to do things round here) a democratic vote between our favourite knitted hats of the week.

Sipping Susan by Mary of Bishops Stortford emerged victorious with 62.78% of the public vote precisely.

Here she is enjoying a well earned victory drink.

As for Bertram, all is not lost, he was last seen in the garden at Fruit Towers feasting on the last of the season's pollen. Apparently he wants to be match fit for his imminent trip down to Sainsbury's.

It's almost time to keep your eyes peeled for Susan, Bertram and their friends.

In the meantime, the happy news is that every cloud definitely does have a silver lining. This week's postal strikes means we've decided to shift the deadline back to the 30th of October.

Hurrah for an extra ten days knitting. If you've got new hats (or even old ones from last year) we'd love to have them so please do send them in.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls the announcement you've all been waiting for. In just a few short moments we'll be able to bring you, live from this very blog post, the results of this weeks 'Hat of the Week' competition. The votes have been counted and verified by our independent adjudicator and you could cut the air with a knife such is the palpable sense of tension.

Without further ado. The winner is......weirdly long pause...fumble with envelope...Big Bee Hive by Kerri from Essex.

Now let's all sit back and enjoy this montage of Kerri and Big Bee Hive Hat leaping about in celebration, set possibly to Westlife's 'You raise me up'.

It's a beautiful thing indeed. Kerri, a case of our finest and our heartiest congratulations. Well done you and well done Big Bee Hive Hat.

It's Friday, the sun is shining and just when you think things couldn't get any better you come back from your lunch break and find this waiting for you.

Or at least that's what happened to me today.

Here we have an incredible 1800 hats courtesy of the lovely Fortis Knitters. Unfortunatley Sara (who is apparently the Chief Fortis Knitter) isn't at work today so we couldn't say thank you in person. Here's hoping that this makes up for it a bit.

The've gone down a storm. Here's Rich (excuse the box in the background) He is particularly fond of the christmas pudding hat. Gurdeep says the hats have made his day, and Kat wants to have a nap in the box later she likes them so much. In a bold move Eddie has decided he wants to commision a person sized version of the tea pot hat, although we're not sure that's wise.

In short we are all really chuffed. If you want to see the rest of the hats, or what our other knitters are up to then you can check them all out here on the big knit flickr group.

Fortis Knitters thank you, you're welcome to fruit towers for a smoothie any time you'd like, in fact call in advance and we'll even put the kettle on.

We've all been inspired to get our needles out over the weekend, if you feel likewise you can find everything you might want to know right here on our special Big Knit website

If you're not a natural born knitter you can still help by gathering up hats from last year and sending them in for recycling. Every little helps.