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:

Monday, October 3, 2011

Vanilla Peach Lemon Abundance

My 4th canning venture went pretty well.  Justin was away, so Kate came over for Chinese food, wine and to keep me company in the kitchen.
Peeling peaches was easier than I expected, just a little boiling water bath, then a plunge into ice water and....
gasp!  Naked peaches!  They kind of looked like big egg yolks.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...