Knit a penguin jumper, save a New Zealand penguin

Oh, penguins. With your funny little waddles and cute suits, you're the most dapper of all of the birds. I do like you very much. I want to do nice things for penguins (even the cheeky rock-stealing penguin in the video). I'd like to have them over for tea. Or, I could tell you about the campaign to knit them jumpers and help save the little penguins who got caught in the oil spill in New Zealand. I spotted this sad, wonderful story over on Etsy's blog and frankly there is nothing cuter than a penguin in a jumper (and indeed polar bears, like this print from Ian Slorance on Etsy)

Penguin-sized sweaters help keep the poorly little guys snuggly until they are well enough to be cleaned up. Otherwise they'll try and do it themselves and ingest all of the bad stuff in their feathers. You can find a pattern over on the Skeinz Yarn Store (this little plan was their idea) and then post your knitted jumper to their New Zealand address. Yep, it's far away, but those those penguins would rather like an English argyll sweater, I'm sure.

Want some more penguin goodies? It's unlikely that you get to keep a penguin after you've made him a jumper, so here are some things you might like.

You can buy bundles of vintage Penguin books from Florence & Florence. They look like they've been loved, don't they?

This penguin mug is cute! The penguin chick is adorable. It's £6.99 and rather aptly it's from The Gifted Penguin.

Not just knitting jumpers, Madame Oiseau thinks that penguins should wear hats and scarves as well. These chocolate penguins are £3.50 each.

Got more information about how we can help the penguins? Tell us in the comments and if you happen to find any more cool penguin stuff, then let us know about that as well.