Knitters to the rescue! Sweaters warm penguins affected by New Zealand oil spill

A yarn store in New Zealand is doing its part to protect penguins harmed by the 2011 oil spill.

Skeinz made its plea to knitters worldwide, asking them to provide sweaters for oil-soaked penguins. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

The little wool penguin jumpers are designed to "help protect the birds and prevent them from preening their feather and ingesting the toxic oil" and can keep the birds warm pre- and post-cleaning by cleanup workers.

Skeinz quickly reached "critical mass," receiving all the jumpers needed to take care of the birds.

One commenter wrote of the quick sweater response: "You may have underestimated the power of a photo featuring a penguin in a knitted sweater. How can anyone resist?"

This wasn't the first call for brightly coloured penguin-sized wool jumpers. In 2001, the Tasmanian Conservation Trust asked for the donation of 100 sweaters — and received 15,000 of them.