Days of Old: The PureSpec Knit-A-Thon

UPDATE 2013: There are currently no plans to hold a Knit-A-Thon at PureSpec in 2013. Our usual volunteer knitter/participant will be out of the province this year.

Our friends and fellow browncoats, the Austin Browncoats, had a wonderful idea that we fully intend to swipe capitalize on. In the past they have run a Knit-A-Thon as part of their Dragon*Con convention booth.

We borrowed the idea in 2011 and will continue to take a page from their fundraising book thanks to its resounding success. Once again we’ll be holding our own convention knit-a-thon during the Pure Speculation Festival (aka PureSpec) in Edmonton, Alberta. The funds raised during the knit-a-thon are used to purchase yarn for our volunteer knitters. Alberta Browncoats’ knitters work their fingers to the bones making hundreds of  “not afraid of anything” toques to sell at conventions and the Can’t Stop the Serenity event each year.

Depending on skill level of the knitter, each hat can take between 4-12 hours to complete. Because they freely donate so much of their personal time making  hats, we provide yarn free to all volunteer knitters upon request. At a cost of approximately $8-10 per hat yarn costs add up quickly!

The Plan
A volunteer knitter has stepped up to the plate.  At our booth at PureSpec we’ll be collecting donations and pledges for our yarn fund. Donors may make a “per hat” pledge or throw some cashy money into the donation jar. Projected completed hats over the weekend is expected to be between 3 & 5 hats.

How you can help
Onsite: Drop some cashy monies in the donation jar at our booth.

Offsite:
1. Make a per hat pledge (e.g. “I’ll donate $$ for each hat completed”).
2. Click the Donate button on our Home page and make a one-time donation.
3. Tell your friends. Share this link via email, facebook, blog about it. Sing. Dance. Tell the world!

Not from around here?
Don’t fear, you can still donate to the cause by registering a pledge. Once the knit-a-thon is complete, we’ll contact you with your pledge total and you send us your cashy monies via PayPal.

The  “not afraid of anything” toques are inspired by, but not replicas of, a hat we all love. We do not have access to a pattern similar to the one used on the show. Our hats do not have the long pointed top. Instead, they are rounded and based off a toque design. They are double-knit for warmth in a Canadian climate. Our colours are also different than the original as we do not have access to the yarn brands and colours available in the US.

The hats are a major fundraiser for the Alberta Browncoats and go a long way to helping us reach our phenomenal charitable donation totals ($30,000 since 2009). The proceeds from our  “not afraid of anything” toques sales help pay upfront costs for the Edmonton Can’t Stop the Serenity (CSTS) event in 2010 through 2013 and remaining profits from sales were split between Kids Need to Read, the Edmonton Youth Emergency Shelter Society and other local Albertan not-for-profit groups.