Side with love: a scarf for Syria

I started this a while ago, and then lost steam. But I got all inspired again, because of a good cause: we’re sponsoring a refugee family from Syria!

I had been feeling really helpless about the situation in Syria—so awful, and seemingly so little we can do from so many miles away. So I was excited when the Unitarian congregation I attend announced a new project: to sponsor a refugee family to come to Canada!

The family we are bringing over has two little girls, and for the past two years they’ve been living in a refugee camp. That is no way for a child to live. On average, refugees eat 400 calories worth of food each day—that is not nearly enough for a growing kid!

So as one of our fundraising efforts, I got myself together to chart and write up a Side with Love scarf.

Side with Love is an interfaith public advocacy campaign that seeks to harness love’s power to stop oppression. It is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association and all are welcome to join.

The campaign is “open-source” so side with love in the way the spirit moves you, but honour the intention of the campaign, and harness the power of love to stop oppression!

It is also asked that you stay true to the official colour scheme, which is black, white, and a rich orangey-yellow (Pantone 137). patons classic wool superwash dk has the perfect gold for this! Right now I’m working from stash, but I have some Patons on order to do it up right!

The pattern is for a double-knit scarf to keep warm during the next “thirty days of love” campaign, which typically runs from Martin Luther King Jr. Day through Valentine’s Day. You need to understand how to work double-knit to make this pattern (there are plenty of great tutorials online), but you could just as easily use the chart to add a bit of love to something else!

I am asking that anyone who downloads this free pattern makes a donation of $5 or more to our refugee sponsorship. You can find out more about the family we're sponsoring and make a donation here. The link is through Canada Helps, so an income tax receipt will be generated for any donation of over $20.

And once you’ve made your donation, here is the link to download the side with love scarf pattern, or you can find it on Ravelry. enjoy!