We know you love knitting as much as we do here at Clover! And we want everyone to love it just as much. That’s why we’re partners with the Craft Yarn Council of America (CYCA) in their efforts to teach kids the joys of knitting. Teaming with Scholastic Inc., CYCA recently reached out to 10,000 classrooms, grades 8-12, and distributed more than 40,000 free knitting kits for the Learn to Knit initiative, a life skills program for service-minded students. Once the program was launched this past Fall, the 40,000 kits were spoken for in less than two weeks!

The program supports CYCA’s Warm Up America effort which provides people in need with afghans and blankets created with knitted rectangles from donors all over the U.S.

Clover contributed 20,000 needles and included an information sheet about the needles in the kits. Also included were one skein of yarn, knitting instructions, and coupons from CYCA members.

Learn to Knit encourages students to knit rectangles for Warm Up America and to teach other teens to knit. As a bonus, their kits included a scarf pattern they can make once they learn the ropes by making rectangles. And, the students can enter a contest to win cash! All they have to do is write an essay about their experience in teaching someone a new skill while helping a great cause.

We love helping people, and we love spreading the joy of knitting. We hope you do, too. For more about the Learn to Knit program and Warm Up America, visit http://www.warmupamerica.org. Though the Learn to Knit kits are all spoken for and the program is well under way, you can still help Warm Up America efforts and start your own Learn to Knit program locally.

Scholastic Inc is recognized as the leading global education, media, and publishing company. The Craft Yarn Council of America is the yarn industry’s trade association made up of members representing leading suppliers of yarn, accessories, designs, books, and magazines.