The Lentening

This year for Lent I’m giving back instead of giving up. If you are new to Lattes and Llamas, you can hear more about the details of that here. And before I go any further, I want to remind you about our fabulous giveaway. We’ve gotten a ton of submissions (which is awesome), but it’s not too late to get your entry in. You can find all the details on that here and we’re accepting entries until midnight of March 31^st.

As a part of my Lent initiative to give back to the community, I’m releasing a free pattern every Wednesday in March. So far we’ve given you the World’s Greatest Slippers, the Celtic Lace Scarf, and Jac’s outrageously adorable Baby Chick. However, I have saved my most premium pattern for last. This week I am thrilled to give you the OMG Ducks hat (click to automatically download the PDF pattern).

You may notice how well it goes with the scarf we already gave you.  ;D

In addition to giving you free patterns, I’ve been telling you a little more about the charities that are nearest and dearest to my heart. For the most part this has involved “less than cheerful” stories. There was actually some contention here at L&L as to whether or not we ought to run with such “downer posts”.  This is a knitting blog after all, and folks don’t come here to hear about sick kids. (But then again, maybe you do; we don’t judge.) Either way, we’ve decided to end our Lenten preaching on a high note by showing you a little bit of what you have done.

As a community I think knitters, nerds, and knitting-nerds have a whole lot to be proud of.  Let’s take a minute to celebrate the many ways that all y’all have been saving the world, one stitch at a time:

• The Knit A Square (KAS) collects hand knit or crocheted squares and assembles them into blankets for orphaned children that are being treated for AIDS.
• Project Linus has been making blankets for children in hospitals, shelters, and social service agencies since 1995.
• Knots of Love collects and distributes hand made caps for people battling cancer.
• Knitters from around the world made sweaters for penguins that had been affected by oil spills.
• The Seattle Browncoat Charity sells hand knitted Jayne hats to support their local charities.  Shiny!

And this is just the barest of overviews, a tiny tasting of what you are all out there doing.  Keep it up guys, you’re awesome.

~Megan-Anne
I stand in awe of what you are capable of.