Crafty people in Reading are being called upon to pick up their knitting needles to support the town's homeless community.
St Mungo's charity is launching a new project entitled The Big Yarn, which asks knitters to make a woolly hat as part of its nationwide fundraising campaign, Get Reading reports.
The homeless charity, which has been operating for more than 40 years is hoping that generous members of the public will be able to knit 5,678 orange bobble hats in time for this year's Woolly Hat Day on Friday, October 26th.
Once they're all made the cosy hats will be offered for sale alongside some woolly headgear made by celebrity supporters such as James Bond actor Daniel Craig and tennis ace Roger Federer.
While the number of hats required might seem like an odd figure, 5,678 actually represents the number of people who slept rough on the streets of London last year.
The campaign hopes to raise awareness of the number of rough sleepers in the UK, especially as there has been a 23 per cent rise nationwide over the past year, with a 43 per cent increase in London alone.
Discussing the campaign, Tanya English from the charity said: "The idea behind The Big Yarn is to get people knitting in support of St Mungo's and encourage them to personalise their creation - each hat will have a story just like each individual who ends up rough sleeping."
While the number of people sleeping rough in Reading has fallen, the charity's Street Outreach Team claims that it is difficult to build up relationships with homeless people, gaining their trust and offering them help to get them off the streets.
Anyone keen to be involved in the campaign can download a pattern from St Mungos Facebook page, where they will also find directions to the website for Woolly Hat Day fundraising packs, so you can help the charity beat its donation predictions.
