Just a quick shout about the Old Forge… Open as part of Brighton Festival Artist Open Houses, Rhoda and friends have been knitting tea cosies, which they will be letting go for a mere £20, in aid of you know who (MSF), via you know what (p/hop). Extract from their blog:

Second weekend has already passed and still no pictures! It was rainy and wet on but still there was a wonderful and constant stream of visitors. The Margo Selby cushions and bags sold really well and another beautiful Eloise Grey coat left the building… They are such good value for ethically sourced tweed. We sold our first tea cosy for Medecins Sans Frontieres. With such an amazing choice and so beautifully knitted and for such an amazing cause, I hope we sell all 20 of them.

Still got two weeks, so if you’re local, maybe you might want to pop down and show some p/hop support (and definitely eat a cream tea).

We don’t often have fund-raising knitting here at p/hop but if you’re itching to make something for Medecins Sans Frontieres now is your chance.

The brilliant supporters in the Ravelry p/hop group are organising another knit-a-long to make squares for blankets which will be raffled at knitting festivals over the summer. If you remember last year the group made a beautiful barn raising blanket from sock weight yarn. The lucky person who won it in the raffle at the I Knit Weekender practically ran to claim it.

This year there are two patterns to choose from, the barn raising blanket or the Lizard Ridge blanket which can be found on Knitty.com.

If you want to take part you will find details in the Ravelry group.

Thank you and happy knitting…

There’s a great four page spread all about p/hop in the latest issue of Yarn Forward magazine (issue 25, June 2010).

Here’s Pete reading all about it!

Hello to any new readers who’ve found us through Yarn Forward. You can keep up-to-date with all the p/hop news here on the blog, via our twitter feed and in the p/hop Ravelry group. Please feel free say hello back to us, we’d love to hear from you.

You may recognise Pete from the article, he’s the one holding* his now infamous scarf for Arsene Wenger.

We’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Yarn Forward team for the feature.

Now back to knitting my scarf for the PHKCOW competition. I’m in the office tomorrow and must beat Pete. My knitting pride is at stake.

*Note that’s Pete holding his scarf, not knitting it

The competition with Clare (gingerknitsUK) has well and truly started.

Pete's fighting face is designed to strike terror into the heart of Clare

Little did she know that my knitting inactivity was a clever and underhanded tactic to lull her into a contest, so I could become the first p/hop knitting champion of the world (PHKCOW)! Having feigned reluctance to the proposed knitting race, I have stormed off the blocks with a massive 11 rows on the first weekend….

‘I thought he’d forgotten how to knit!’ I hear you mutter.

And you were nearly right. But, when I heard about a local knitting group called Stitch Mark East (here for ravelry and here for facebook), I knew it was destiny… Not only did the experience inspire me to my personal record for number-of rows-knitted-in-one-go. And, not only was it a very cool and relaxing afternoon chatting and knitting. It was also in Cafe Oto in Dalston, which is a wicked place… With the company of Rachael (Stitch Mark East founder) and her friends, good tea and good music, 11 rows flew past in no time.

Clare, I have thrown down the gauntlet, the race is on… I await your response

*Stitch Mark East (or Knits of the Round Table as Rachel regrets not calling it) is on every Sunday in Cafe Oto, so if you are a local reading this, feel free to drop by.*

I meet Rachael, Stitch Mark East founder