We had a hoot at The Bothered Owl Christmas Party last week. There was tea, wine, mince pies, plenty of nibbles, good food and great company. It was a great evening for socialising and knitting in a lovely relaxed atmosphere. Onehandknits has written a good review of the evening here though I feel I should yarn you, it contains a lot of lovely yarn.

Sadie aka Whitehart and Sarah aka SarahAbroad volunteered at our table where we had our favourite gift knitting patterns available for donation. Sadie had brought along a pair of Cranford Mitts (I think the 8th pair of the nine pairs she has made!) which we borrowed as a sample. The Cranford Mitt-a-long was so popular we extended it to the end of December so please join in the fun over on Ravelry.

Sadie and her Cranford Mitts

We’re also having a knit-a-long for our Christmas Stocking pattern. I made one of these as I wasn’t sure if our sample would arrive in time for Christmas but it only took me a weekend to knit it. A big thank you to Crochet-y-knitter for her beautiful sample. If you’re a little nervous about stranded knitting take a look at this great tutorial (scroll down) to get inspired.

We raised £46.56 at the Bothered Owl party which is pretty good for an evening of scoffing delicious mince pies, vegan sausage rolls and eyeing up gorgeous yarn. A big thank you to everyone who made a donation and to Sarah and Sadie for giving up their free time to help out and a huge thank you to the Bothered Owls for inviting us to such a fun event.

Seasons Greeting to you all, I hope you have a peaceful and happy festive holiday.

Today is World Aids Day. Please take a few minutes out of your day to read about the work MSF does about HIV and AIDS and see how your p/hopped pennies help people living with HIV and AIDS.

As well as helping with raising vital funds through p/hop you can take direct action to ensure generic medicines are still available to people in the developing world. Here’s the introduction from the MSF UK website.

“Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80% of the medicines used by MSF to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission is now shutting off the tap of affordable medicines by attacking the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. People who need these will be left without a lifeline.

Help Médecins Sans Frontières send a message to the European Commission to keep their HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE!”

Thank you.

We’re off to a Seasonal Knitting Event on Monday, The Bothered Owl’s Christmas Party, which will feature nibbles, drinks, yarn shopping and p/hop as well as good friends and festive cheer. I’m taking along our best Giftmas knitting patterns and am looking forward to chatting with knitters, the lovely Bothered Owl team, and munching mince pies.

If you’re going to a festive knitting event why not take a few copies of you favourite patterns along to help spread the p/hop word. We still have some of our postcards so if you would like some to take to an event please get in touch.

You can also support MSF by buying their Seasonal Cards.

Most of us knitters like to make special, lovingly hand crafted gifts for people at Christmas. You can also give something very special through MSF. MSF have teamed up with gifts4good to offer various medical kits as gifts. Your recipient will receive an email telling them what your gift will do. eg £15 will provide someone with antiretroviral therapy for a month or £150 will buy a surgical kit. At my old work place we used to club together and buy a large gift for good instead of small gifts for each other. 100% of the money goes directly to MSF and there is no waste as it’s all done by email. Brilliant!

We have a new festive pattern for you to enjoy in the run up to the holiday season.

Tis The Season Stocking by Katie Weston uses DK weight yarn to make a cheerful enticement for Santa to come down your chimney. The pattern is very versatile and can be knitted in heavier or lighter weight yarns.

If you’re busy knitting away for Christmas/Channuka/insert winter festivals of choice here’s the best of our quick patterns.

Elizabeth’s Scarf is superfast using chunky yarn and 7mm needles.

Liz Lovick’s Snowflake Hat and Mittens are also a quick knit using chunky yarn. The pattern comes in a range of sizes so are great for all the family. I’m in the middle of making my own pair of mittens after, ahem, borrowing the p/hop samples a little too often.

The ever popular Cranford Mitts use small amounts of sock or 5ply yarn and once you’ve got the hang of the Shetland horseshoe pattern knit up in no time at all. Take a look on Ravelry to see the variety of pairs which have been made in the Cranford Mitt-a-long.

Quick and Easy DK Socks make wonderfully cosy bed socks, perfect for chilly winter evenings and are knitted on 4mm needles so knit up faster than you can sing the 12 days of Christmas.

If you fancy a challenge why not try the beautiful Poinsettia Shawl pattern, perfect for this time of year.

If that’s a tad daunting why not try the Trinity Shawl which uses one 100g skein of sock yarn making it a beautiful yet affordable gift. It’s a great beginners lace pattern as it comes with written instructions as well as charts.

Have you made any of these patterns? Let us know what you think in the comments below or join in the fun in our friendly Ravelry group.