A Growing, Colorful, Machine Washable, Yarn Snowball of Goodness

Please forgive the long front story for only one picture, but it's totally worth it.  

I promise that I will post about this again, I will keep it short and there will be more pictures.

So, last summer I challenged the Monona Library, where I work, to stop giving out little pieces of plastic junk to kids as summer reading prizes.  They jumped on board.  We even had a program to publicize it.  

We gave out lots of cardboard and paper gifts and even used fewer plastic bags (We bought none but used some from years past).  We did have to give out fewer gifts, because plastic is cheaper than anything else, but our patrons were very supportive.

One of the more incredible gifts was that the mom of  Karen (My boss and the Library's Children's Coordinator) crocheted hundreds of little fish for us to give away and they were the most popular gift of the summer.  

This year, she wasn't able to keep up the amazing pace so I went to Ravelry (Home of the best knitters and crocheters in the world) and asked local people knit us some toys as give aways.  

Well, the Madison Knitter's Guild totally jumped on board.  In one month, this is what they put together for us (I stopped by the meeting just to thank the people who brought them in and was able to snap one picture with my phone):

That's like, almost 200 hand made toys and bookmarks!

I'm blown away.  There are more coming and I understand that the Knitting Guild wants to expand the effort to more libraries around the state!  This means less plastic crap polluting the planet and more exposure to hand made goodies for children.  I will post more and better pictures when the creatures land at the library.  I just had to share it, though.  I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of the amazing knitters I met.  

It's like a growing, colorful, machine washable, yarn snowball of goodness.