Buy A Sweater, Share the Warmth

Have you heard about the Land’s End FeelGood Campaign yet? You haven’t? Well, this might be the coolest corporate charity program I’ve heard of in a long time. I love Land’s End, they have quality products that last, which is important to me as a mom of 4 young children.

For every Lands’ End FeelGood sweater purchased, the company will donate a cone of their signature FeelGood yarn to One Heart Foundation’s Warming Families, a nationwide knitting charity. How cool is that? The sweaters are absolutely gorgeous too. From rumors I’ve read around the blogosphere from those who saw the sweaters at Blog Her or have received one to review, they are apparently the softest sweaters ever. The price is reasonable too, the striped style is even on sale today. I personally like the solid sweaters, especially the Winter Violet and Aztec Gold colors.

Another reason I’m blogging about this today is that Land’s End is taking it a step further. Not only are they donating a cone of their signature FeelGood yarn for every sweater purchased, but they are donating a cone for every blog post written about the campaign (through today). One cone of FeelGood yarn is enough to make 28 hats to be donated to homeless individuals in communities across the country! Can you believe that? I kind of wish they’d send me the cone of yarn and I’d knit them myself. Truth is, I have no idea how long it would take me to knit 28 hats! It might be spring by the time I finished.

What is so special about today? Tonight is the big Land’s End FeelGood Twitter Party hosted by Land’s End and Knitty Gritty’s Vickie Howell. Seriously cool! The party goes from 7 to 9 p.m. CST, please use the #landsend hashtag. The party will feature more than 20 fun giveaways ranging from the FeelGood sweater and Vickie Howell’s books to Lands’ End gift cards and FeelGood yarn.

How do you attend a Twitter party? First, you sign up for a Twitter account. Do it now… that way you’ll be ready when the party time arrives. Next, follow Amanda from Land’s End (@LEprAmanda) and Vickie (@vickiehowell). Third, I suggest using a site like TweetGrid to keep up with the party conversation. If that’s a bit much, just stick to the regular Twitter site and refresh your page often so you don’t miss the questions and giveaways the hosts have for you. Don’t forget to add the hashtag (#landsend) to every tweet you make during the party time so that your tweets count for games and prizes.

I’ve attended several Twitter parties, and while they are usually wild, crazy and fast paced; they are always fun and I learn lots and make new friends. Sadly, I have other “real life” plans tonight, so I won’t be there.

Want another way to participate? You can grab Vickie Howell’s free hat pattern at the Land’s End website, and knit up a hat or two yourself. For information on how to get involved with your local chapter of Warming Families, check out this page. Be patient with their website, I’m sure they are getting a lot of traffic, things are taking a while to load, they are a non-profit charity. If there isn’t a local volunteer in your area, please read the info about the organization and consider sharing your organizational skills with them.

Don’t know how to knit, but want to learn now? Check out this video featuring Vickie Howell: LandsEndvideo

Or better yet *insert shameless plug here* join ME next Wednesday evening (Sept 23rd) at 9 p.m. EST on MomTV for the debut of my new web show Handmade Holidays. More details on the show in the coming days!

So make some time tonight for the Twitter party, check out Warming Families charity, or purchase a Land’s End FeelGood sweater. All are great ways to help out others in this fabulous campaign!