Thursday, October 20, 2011

Helping the Little Guys

Casually scanning Twitter the other day I saw a tweet by Brett Bara with a link to this article about the plight of penguins who survived an oil spill in New Zealand.  
[photo by Toby Zerna/Newspix/Rex USA seen on abc NEWS]
Even though I don't know much about that part of the world (aside from Flight of the Conchords) I found this especially touching: Skeinz yarn store was calling for knitters to make jumpers to warm the penguins before and after rescue workers cleaned them, and to protect them from preening their oil-soaked feathers and being poisoned.  What a great way to use crafty skills!
[photo from Adorablog]
A similar request 10 years ago from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust for 100 jumpers resulted in over 15,000, and now already Skeinz has reported on their blog they've received enough to reach "critical mass"!  Here's video news proof with cleaned up penguins swimming happily.  But if you've already finished a jumper, or just want to try your hand at creating penguin clothes, you can still use this pattern and send to Skeinz for the Wildlife Rescue Team to keep on hand if needed.
So hooray for penguins and for all the knitting and cleaning hands that helped them out.  I'll leave you with my amigurumi penguin: I crocheted him for Christmas 2009 from a Lion Brand Yarn pattern and I love him so. 
For further reading on penguins and crafting doing good:

6 comments:

youngmi said...

i can't get over how funny and cute they look in their little sweaters! but the reason they need them is so sad. i love it when crafters can use their talents to help others. especially when the others are tiny little penguins!!!

la domestique said...

What a great post! I think it's wonderful how crafters have stepped up to help out these penguins. Thanks for sharing this story.

Rachel said...

aren't bret and jamaine the sexiest kiwis you've ever seen??? your penguin is super cute!

-rachel w k
rwkrafts.blogspot.com

Content Director - Strong Female Leaders said...

Too cute! Love their sweaters.

www.geekettegazette.com
www.thegirlieblog.com

Craftiness NOW said...

thanks for reading ladies, i love this cause and how adorable the penguins, bret and jamaine are ;-) let's find some more ways to use craftiness for good!

betsy said...

Aw, this post just came up on my radar... Thanks for the interest in craftivism and for the shout out!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...