Thursday, October 20, 2011

Penguin PJ's

Penguin PJ’s -animaltracks.today.msnbc.msn.com is the story link that I saw on Facebook. It captured my attention!

 I guess it already went viral and they have had a great response...and sadly for me, enough Penguin PJ's are already knit up. I just loved the story though:

As you may be aware the oil spill & potential disastrous effects to wildlife & environment off the coast of Tauranga is frightening. A small number of little blue penguins have already been caught in the oil spilled to date with growing fears that more will be effected. Skeinz has been asked to help with the penguin relief by knitting small Penguin PJ’s to help protect the birds & prevent them from preening their feather & ingesting the toxic oil. If you can help out by knitting a penguin jumper – send them to Skeinz at the address below.
Then they gave an address in New Zealand, however as I mentioned in  a recent update they indicated they had overwhelming response and had enough "jumpers" to suit the poor penguins up. Aw, I wanted this to be my next project...They said any other sweaters they receive will be put in storage in the event of another need for them.
                Here's the pattern:   
Penguin Jumper in 8ply - Must be 100% Wool Yarn
1 pair 3.25mm , 1 pair of 3.75mm needles , 1 set of 3.25mm dpn’s or circular
Cast on 36 stitches using 3.25 needles.K1, P1 to end of row. Repeat this row 7 times. Change to 3.75mm needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row. (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15 cms.
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain.
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts.)
Leave on needle.
Make second side the same.
Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 3.25mm needles.(18 sts on each.) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows.
Cast off.
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17 cm (knots allowed). Flat elastic OK.


How about you? Have any penguins to knit for?

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