Knitting is for the Birds

You've heard about oil spills. And you've heard about the devastating effects that an oil spill can have on wildlife in the area. Which means that you may have also heard about the campaign(s) for hand knitted sweaters for penguins in Australia and New Zealand. As well as the excessive abundance of those adorable little sweaters that now used to dress up plushy penguin toys.

I missed that - must have been working on some mittens for afghans for Afghans. But this time, I'm not missing out:

Wildcare in San Rafael is asking for handcrafted "nests" (think round, dopey hats) for orphaned baby birds. Yup, baby bird season is in full-swing right now, and somebody has to keep those newborns snug and warm until they are old enough, and feathery enough, to go back into the wild.

Wildcare is asking for 1200 woolen nests, and, as of today, has already received close to 400. I have six almost ready to be mailed off. They are really fast to knit but it's that "almost" that I'm working on this week. Because this time, my dopey hats really are going to the birds.

Instructions for making nests yourself can be found here.

And my stack of nest-hats can be found here.