So, who won the YEAR OF YARN (ever-so-kindly donated by Natalie)?? I know you’ve all been on the edges of your seats, biting your fingernails to the nub, so I’ll put you out of your misery….

The winner is Isobel Murdock!

When we gave her the good news, she was overjoyed.  Sobbing into the phone, she started to thank all the people who had helped her on the difficult journey to where she is today, almost too emotional to speak… Well, that’s not quite true, but she did say, “WOW! I’m shocked! I don’t often win anything. Usually I’m one of those people who buys raffle tickets but rarely wins anything, or when I do the choice is down to the naff things at the bottom of the pile!”

So congratulations Isobel, hope you enjoy it and send us some pics of what you turn the new stash

AMAZING!

I am a geek, and as such, I am going to give you the stats

• 30 guest blogs & bloggers!
• 5 brand spanking new patterns!
• Over 14,000 visitors to the blog!!
• Of which over 9,500 were new to p/hop!
• £1170 raised via justgiving!
• $685 raised via firstgiving!

Really AMAZING! On some days, p/hop’s blog had more visitors than MSF’s UK web site…. And even apart from the money raised, the number of new people the birthday blog-a-long sent our way was brilliant. People introducing their friends to p/hop, people introducing their friends to MSF and everyone having a good time while doing it.

p/hop was 1 this year and in that short time you have done so much… Many of the highlights have been mentioned in the birthday blogs, so I won’t go through them again. But, just in terms of funds, money that got Kiran, Claire and Fiona to Niger, Chad and Congo, you guys have raised an astounding £8,983 ($14,591). It is a humbling total. This includes gift aid by the way….

As the year draws to an end, plans for next year are being finalised and I wanted to leave you with my thoughts for p/hop. In truth, I have no idea what we will see in 2010. 2009 has continually surprised and delighted me and I know the spontaneity, the passion and the creativity that have characterised this year’s activities will continue and  predicting where they might lead us would be futile.

I work for an emergency organisation. We are really good at responding. When there’s an earthquake or conflict, we pride ourselves on being there quickest and getting to the people that need help most. Working with you guys has been an exercise in response – the ideas that have made p/hop what it is this year have been borne of knitters and carried out by knitters and, sometimes, I have been scrambling to keep up. All I can say is, long may this continue.

One year ago, who would have thought I’d be able to knit as well? It’s been a good year… Big thanks to all of you!!

All the best,

Pete

swatches

The life of a textiles designer is ironically often quite frantic, due to the slow and steady nature of the crafts involved meaning some projects can go on for months.

Last week was one of those busy-busy weeks, with lots of long projects nearing completion at the same time.I have had four knitting and crochet projects to swatch, finish making and/or write patterns for, as well as the day job, a launch party, knitting lesson and Christmas market preparation and some embroidery projects to complete. Phew!

The picture above shows some grey garter stitch, which is a sample of the cowl we shall be knitting in a beginners class coming up this weekend, a mock houndstooth fairisle knit coming to a magazine near you very soon and a couple of crochet swatches for throws. The nice thing about working on so many different projects is that you don’t get bored, or suffer so acutely with RSI or tennis elbow due to the differing patterns of your fingers when working crochet and knitting or chunky and fine yarns.

I have also been planning more adventurous projects, dreaming up and sketching wonderfully glamourous knits for a possible new book, here’s a little exclusive preview of a fringed number. Have been wanting to make this for what seems like forever, perhaps now will be the big chance!

So glad that this week is panning out a little more relaxed so I have finally had a chance to blog and direct people to the fantastic p/hop cause; hopefully all you generous knitters will get huge pleasure from knitting something from the site and be able to take the time to enjoy the process as well as the donating.

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Thank you very much Claire. You can read more from Claire aka Montyknits here.

Remember you can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

I tend to knit presents for most of my nearest and dearest and over the last few years, this has included socks for both my parents, scarves for pretty much everyone, countless hats and mitts for my husband and adipose for my nephews and plenty of other things that I can’t even remember.  I remember tallying up last years knitting and realising I had given away twice as much knitting as I kept for myself.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with this at all.  It’s a good thing in a way as it makes gift giving a lot easier.  And it normally makes me feel very good knowing that my knitting is being appreciated by someone else for a change.  But this year, I didn’t want to give everything away.  I wanted to be selfish and keep the gorgeous yarn for myself (well, mainly) and so I am not and have not done any Christmas gift knitting.  This is probably a good thing as I seem to have no time for the knitting, what with all the World of Warcraft playing and house painting etc but it’s still left me feeling a little guilty.  I should be sharing my knitting with the world!

What to do about the guilt though?!?  I have two answers; firstly, I am going to try and design more next year, including something for p/hop and secondly, I am going to knit a p/hop pattern and donate to the brilliant cause, MSF!  Voila!  Guilt free knitting!

Now, why do I care about p/hop and MSF?  Well, it does help that 2 lovely MSF ladies kept me sane whilst taking the bus and train home from Woolfest but it’s also because I want to give something back.  If I was a medic, I’d be donating my time to MSF but I am not so p/hop is a brilliant way for me to be able to do my bit.

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Thank you very much Perversia. You can read more from Perversia on her Domestic Blissless blog.

Remember you can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

I received something exciting in the post today. No, I hadn’t won the lottery and I hadn’t inherited an estate from a long-lost relative. It was much more simple than that – it was a handwritten envelope. Now, this may seem a bit trivial, but the very fact that I feel moved to write about it made me realise how little of my mail these days is truly personal. Sure, I get bank statements and so on, but the rest is, let’s be honest, junk mail. Impersonal, mass-produced junk mail which goes straight in the (recycling) bin. (And yes I remove and shred the address and I don’t put the cellophane in).

So this letter (for letter it was), made me feel special – knowing that someone took the trouble to write to me, by hand, go to the post office, add a stamp and drop it in a letterbox. Not just pm me, email, post on my “wall” on Facebook – a real, live letter. And this made me wonder whether postmen and women feel the same. Is it satisfying delivering something you know will almost certainly give the recipient no benefit but go straight into landfill (or, if it’s lucky, be turned into loo roll?). Is there more pleasure in delivering  a lovely bundle of handwritten cards and hand-addressed parcels? I don’t know, but I shall ask my postie.

Either way, call me sentimental (or just plain dotty!), but I shall be ignoring my carefully typed “mail-merged” address list this year and writing out my cards and letters by hand. And hopefully someone as sentimental as me will also feel special, because, quite frankly, they are : )

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Thank you very much Debbie. Debbie designed the p/hop Chevron De Paix Socks. You can read more from her here.

Remember you can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.