...okay, tonight, on my way home, I stopped by a Sainsburys Local. Just to see if I could see any Big Knit Smoothies wearing hats. There were a few left - I was excited - I bought one.
I have brought the smoothie home, I will no doubt photograph it and post the picture. I have given a home to someone else's lovingly knitted hat (made with scrap yarn). I feel good.
I look at the hat sitting on the bottle and I wonder what I will do with it. I decide that I will probably pop it in a cupboard until next year and chuck it back into the Big Knit Hat melee along with any other hats I decide to knit next year (assuming they run the campaign again). After all, I have no other use for it.
I now have an image of hats circulating the UK for years as part of this campaign, rather than being freshly knitted every year - is that healthy?
Hmm. Then, suddenly, I wonder how many of us knitted hats for the Big Knit and have subsequently bought a smoothie in order to give a home to another knitter's Big Knit efforts, at the princely sum of £1.95 per bottle?
So we knitted them and then we bought our hats back (with a drink attached)...?
Shut up Gabrielle, think of the charity element. We knitted all of those hats to be helpful, to part of something and to do good?
But I spent £1.95 on a smoothie, of which £50p goes to charity. So if I knitted two hats (£1.00) and I bought one drink (50p), my total contribution to charity is £1.50, plus yarn and knitting time? I spent £1.95 on a drink that I would not have otherwise bought.
So, in fact, if I had not knitted any hats (time and yarn saving), nor bought a smoothie (pocket emptying), and instead had simply donated the full cost of my smoothie to Age Concern. Then, the charity would be better off and more old people would be warm?
Also, there would be fewer egg cosy sized hats in existence, hanging out in knitter's cupboards?
I am scared. The economics do not pan out. So I just have to hope that this campaign is worth its weight in gold as profile to Age Concern?
I guess that if someone is a regular smoothie drinker, used to paying out that kind of cash on a drink, with the added benefit that 50p is going to charity - that's fine?
Particularly if they do not knit.
Also, I guess if you knitted more hats than you bought smoothies, or contributed at a much higher rate, then your net worth to charity is better?
But how many people out there, like me, only knitted a couple of hats and then went out of their way to buy a smoothie with a hat on?
I feel like I should give an extra 45p to Age Concern, just for being so daft.
PS: I am knitting by the way, just not at a point where it is worth photographing. Update very soon!
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6 comments:
You're thinking way too much about smoothie hats.
How 'bout this to think about - I just donated a quilt to a charity auction. It sold for $250 (about 120 BP). I probably spent that much money on materials. So did it make sense for me to make the quilt? I could've given the charity $250 and saved myself a lot of time.
I don't actually like Smoothies, but have encourgaed all my non-knitting friends to buy them, and they all ask my "What do I do with the hat?" and of course I have no idea what to say!
I love your mind. I want to spend more time with your mind, because together, I think we could conquer the world, one knitting-related neurosis at a time.
I worry about this too. Maybe it is just a clever marketing scheme after all. Perhaps next year I will knit a person-head-sized hat and give it to Age Concern instead of the no bottle-sized hats I knitted this year. But will that make me feel like a more productive member of society or like I'm flipping off bottle-sized hat knitters?
Well, I discovered the Innocent smoothies a few years ago, & thought they were the absolute BEST--and I've never managed to visit the UK when they're wearing clothes!
Charity work is its own reward--no matter where you contribute your work, it's rarely valued as one would like. Odd that I could sell a shawl in a shop for $375, and an identical one would fetch $80 at a charity auction. On the other hand, when charity auctions take place, someone always stresses the "bargains" to be had!
Nice Matters. That's why I've nominated you for the award. Please click through to my blog for the details. :)
Ah where does that leave me? I knitted 32 hats and don't go to Sainsburys so didn't buy a hat with a smoothie on it -oohps that should be the other way around I think. Anyway I guess I have to hope all my hats were bought by non knitters thus raising £16. Ummmmm. At 15mins a hat that is £2.00 an hour to knit them! I guess though those 15 mins would other wise have been wasted moments in time and therefore I have done some good. Emms and Gabrielle I am sure the two of you could conquer the world together.
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