The Without Borders Sock pattern has been kindly donated to the p/hop project by Katie Weston. These lovely socks were inspired by the Endpaper Mitts.

To download a PDF version of the pattern click here.

Don’t forget to make your p/hop donation once you have finished! Easy to donate at justgiving….

Cybil and Rooknits are organising a UK version of the Barn Raising Quilt (featured in the book Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together). The pattern is currently being made available for free by the authors, Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown, to raise money for MSF USA.

The completed blanket/s will be raffled at the iknit weekender on the 11th and 12th of September and all money raised will go p/hop.

If you would like to be a part of this great project and contribute a square or two click here. This link will take you to the Knitalong news page. A PDF version of the pattern can be found at the bottom of the page by clicking on “this document”.

Instructions

Squares need to be made in sock yarn, you need approx 16g of yarn. They are knit on 2.75mm needles (or to a gauge of 7 – 7.5 stitches per inch). We are looking for completed squares that are blocked to 7.5 inches.

Please label the completed square(s) with your name, the name of the yarn (if you know) and whether it is machine washable or not – we are hoping to complete one blanket with machine washable yarn.

Once completed please message Cybil or Rooknits on Ravelry for an address to send the squares to. Alternatively, they will also be collected at the UK Ravelry day in Coventry on 6th June. 

Also, if you don’t have time to knit a square but have some spare sock yarn you would like to contribute for other knitters to make a square from them please get in touch.

There is a group on Flickr for you to add photos of your knitted squares click here to have a look.

If you’re not on Ravelry but would like more information please contact us at p/hop.

Lazy day, woke up late, had breakfast late, knitted in bed… Getting to the point where (drumroll……………………………….) I’m gonna have to change colour wool! I have no idea how to do this, so it should be interesting. Feels like a milestone has been reached.

Day 6

The kids are alright!

4 – 1 to the Arsenal. Liverpool were nowhere! Knitted in side the Emirates, which was fun… Marie had a go too – don’t think this is cheating as we had to undo the stitches (her first knitting since primary school). All in all, a wicked evening….

Day 5

Marie on the needles

Marie, Ronda the scouser and Ronda's sister, Sharon the scouser

Hi all,

I have just come back from a lovely sunny holiday in Egypt. As promised to Pete before I left, I took my knitting along.

This pic was taken in front of the amazing Abu Simbel temple. We had a 3.30am departure in order to travel the 290km out to the temple, so trying very hard to look awake! 

There are many exciting p/hop activities underway at the moment. The knitting festivals are quickly approaching and the list is growing -

UK Ravelry Day 6 June,

Woolfest 26-27 June

Fiberfest 22-23 August

Iknit 11-12 September

I will be at UK Ravelry Day in a few weeks time, along with Ann (colleague and knitter) and Mike (returned field volunteer). If you are attending please drop by, pick up a free pattern and find out more about MSF’s work in the field. It will be great to finally meet some p/hoppers! 

John and Juliet from Fibrefest have kindly offered to let us host the Multicoloured Fibre Swap Shop and Knitting Emporium. So bring along your unwanted textile related items (yarn, craft equipment, books etc) and swap it for someone elses goodie. The Knitting Emporium is going to be an area to sit, relax, knit, share ideas and try some free patterns.

If you have any ideas for these festivals or general p/hop activities, I would love to hear from you. Cybil on Ravelry has come up with a fantastic idea of doing an Afghan for p/hop (pictured below). For more details click here.

Pete is rallying together troops on Ravelry to enter the One & Other draw, to knit on the fourth empty plinth in Trafalgar Square for an hour. To sign up click here.

Hilltopkatie has designed a wonderful sock pattern which will be up on the blog shortly.

Happy knitting!

Went home from work yesterday and still not well enough to go in today, so short post this one. Managed six rows before passing out yesterday afternoon.

Close up for you this time….

Day 4

Back to bed now….

Less productive tonight – played 5-a-side, then the boys came round afterwards…. But, didn’t break the pledge and did two more rows while they battled it out on the playstation. They were a little bit surprised when I pulled out the wool and needles, but I only had to endure ten minutes of ribbing before I reminded them that it was my house and they were quite welcome to leave via the first floor window

Day 3

Got tickets for the Arsenal youth cup final with my friend Marie (also of MSF), so at least we might see the gooner kids win something this season!

Thanks for all your words of encouragement yesterday – really overwhelming! Not sure if Natalie’s competition is still open but feel free to comment here or with everyone else on yesterday’s post.

See you tomorrow and thanks again….

Well, good to my word, here I am! Day two and another six rows completed… And, as I pat myself on the back and think about cracking a cold beer, I think “maybe six rows seems ridiculously easy to most people reading this…” So, I think it’s best to say that I am still at a stage where six rows bring beads of sweat to my brow and leaves lines on my face which weren’t there before.

Day 2

Maybe come day seven or eight I will be blitzing a massive twenty or thirty rows a session – we’ll see. In the meantime, I think I do deserve that beer.

Attending the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo shamed me in a way. Everyone there, including my better half (name of Syn), was a ‘proper’ knitter. I.E. they had actually finished something. This has bugged me since – I cannot make this claim. And so, this is my pledge to p/hop…

I will knit every day from now until the scarf is finished* wherever I may be…

Day 1

Today was day one. At Syn’s house, I got back on the horse. She rethread my knitting onto the new needles (my previous broke on the way back from Lesotho and yes it has been that long!) and I did five brand spanking new rows. And, you know what? I enjoyed it.

I will take a pic everyday (as long as I can) and post them here. You can follow the SPONSORED KNITTER thread to check my progress. So, until tomorrow….

*Needles breaking is an exception as are situations involving major injury, kidnap etc…

Three facts gleaned from the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo:

1. Knitters are super competitive
2. They like a glass of wine
3. Alice (the organiser) does an awful ‘British’ accent!

Arriving late to the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo thanks to my complete lack of knowledge of west London, the first game was already in full swing. Shrieks of glee and, more often, frustration filled the room above Alice’s west London shop as the numbers were called from the front (jump and jive 35 proving particularly elusive for some)…

Booze and gambling - a typical knitters night

After introductions for our benefit (real names and ravelry names), we were soon into game two. Drinks flowed, jokes were made and many pages of numbers were spotted by many different coloured pens. Once all the prizes had been won, including a skein of Doctors Without Borders yarn (which I didn’t even know existed), the fiendish light of Bingo left the crazy knitters’ eyes and the air was filled with laughter, the gurgling of wine into plastic glasses and the inevitable click-clack of needles (I didn’t take my knitting, which was a mistake – I shall now carry it to all knitting related events). An evening that I had been slightly apprehensive about, being fairly new to both knitting and bingo, had turned out to be a real giggle…

Now, apart from being a great social event (subjects of discussion including knitting, tattoos, Japan, knitting, sex-shop ownership and knitting just from what I heard), the night was also a p/hop fundraiser for the work of MSF and again confirmed for me the fantastically generous nature of knitters in general. From money taken for the bingo and collected for the raffle, over £300 ended up in the p/hop coffers. An amazing effort!

So, thanks so much to Alice, to all who attended, to the prize donors, to those who provided the wine and food and to all those who bought raffle tickets… You have done brilliantly and your efforts are much appreciated.

For info on the next Mad Knitters Charity Bingo night, go to the Socktobus blog and scroll to the bottom…….. It’s well worth it!