i’m sure some of you already know about it… but i just discovered the free pattern testers group on ravelry… designers needing test knitters for new patterns… you get a pattern, knit/test it, report back, and then get the sparkling pattern afterwards for FREE 
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/free-pattern-testers
there’s a ton of open projects. some have different sizes, so they need a group for smalls, larges, etc… some have strict done-by dates, some are more open, just depends, but each project has a full description.