World's Biggest Christmas Stocking

If you knit or crochet, or are willing to learn, this is an incredibly cool project for a great charity.

The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation helps kids who've lost a military parent in the line of duty pay for college. Caron, the yarn manufacturer, is putting together a project to make the world's biggest Christmas stocking, and is asking people to knit or crochet three-foot squares and send them in to be assembled. They're going for an entry in the Guinness Book, which is also cool.

If you buy your yarn from Caron, they'll give fifteen cents per skein to the CFPF. If you just want to participate in the world's-biggest-Christmas-stocking project, you can buy your yarn from someone else, or use yarn from your stash, so long as it's worsted weight. There are knit patterns and crochet patterns you can download and print out. All the crochet patterns are Beginner or Easy, and the knitting patterns are mostly Beginner or Easy, with a couple of Intermediates that use mosaic colorwork. Even if you're just learning, you can find a pattern that'll work for you. It might take a while to do a three-by-three square, but if you use a Beginner level pattern, it won't be hard. If you have a favorite pattern you want to use instead, you can do that, so long as you end up with a three-by-three foot square.

If you're worried that you'll be too slow, note that they've been working on this since last November, as far as I can tell. They planned for it to go into this year, and sure enough, they're only 20% through right now. Looks like there'll be time for fast workers to do several squares if they want, and for beginners or people who are just busy to do one without knocking themselves out. :)

The main page, with a progress meter, is here.