Clare aka Dragonflyknit is guest blogging about our current Cranford Mitt-a-long. Take it away Clare….

It has been fun this September to participate in another Ravelry knit-a-long for p/hop of Jane Lithgow’s wonderful Cranford mittens: fabulous to knit and to wear, and also very popular gifts. I signed up on August 3^rd when littlelixie suggested the idea, and began planning which yarn to use. Fellow Ravellers signed up to the knit-a-long quickly grew to twenty-eight, and more have joined in along the way. (It’s not too late to join us! Click here for the Ravelry thread).

Right, a confession: I already had a pair of Cranfords on my circular needle, so I had to get the knitting of these completed in order to cast on a new pair on September 1^st. However, the darning in of the ends of the pair I was knitting in August is not yet done, so my plan is do so this week. Thus by 30^th September, I will in fact have completed two pairs = two donations to P-Hop!

As ever, being part of a knit a long has been a very rewarding experience: it is such a pleasure to see the fabulous yarn and colour choices made for the mitts, and to check in frequently to see how my fellow knitters are progressing. It is also great to see the kindness, encouragement and assistance being offered to knitters who ask for help because the Cranford pattern presents them with the opportunity to learn new skills.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us Clare. If you’re not a Ravelry member here are a few of the gorgeous pairs of mittens that have been made. Thank you to everyone in our Ravelry group who has shared their photos.

Extra repeats of the main pattern make for very elegant Cranfords as knitted by OneHandKnits. ©OneHandKnits

DarthKnitty aka Sefronia throwing some Gagaesque shapes with her coordinated Cranfords. ©Sefronia

Another fine pair by ©Crobbles

If you’ve blogged about the Mitts you’ve made we’d love to read about it. Please leave your comments and links to your blog below.

Tempted to join in? Please do. The official deadline is 30th September but as our knit-a-long is for fun we won’t mind if you’re knitting Cranfords into October, Christmas or 2012…

Speaking of Christmas check out this fun and festive pair made by Snail Hannah

Festive Cranfords by © Snailhannah

Happy knitting and as always thank you for supporting Médecins Sans Frontières.

We don’t sit still for long here at p/hop.

We’ll be at The Yarn Cake’s exciting new Glasgow School of Yarn event on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd October. It will be a lovely tie in as they are celebrating their first birthday and p/hop celebrating it’s third! Three!  Aw, they grow up so fast. Where does the time go?

There’s another BIG birthday coming up. In November MSF turns 40! Now I’d say something about life beginning at 40 but considering MSF have saved so many lives in their first 40 years it doesn’t seem quite right. Here’s to another 40 live saving years!

We are off to Fibre Flurry on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th October. Fibre Flurry was such a fantastic event last year, with a friendly atmosphere and far too much tempting yarn on sale. I can’t make it this year but HilltopKatie and her lovely mum will be running the p/hop stand so make sure you say hello to them.

Now I know it’s only September, the kids have only just gone back to school and we haven’t had Halloween yet, and what? Christmas? Well yes, because MSF Seasonal Greetings cards are now available through the MSF UK website. The cards either contain the message Seasons Greetings or are blank, making them excellent multi-purpose cards. There’s a nice selection of images so please take a look. Here are a few to whet your appetite.

MSF’s new arrival is here. It’s a bouncing bundle of joy and an inspiring campaign to highlight the work British field volunteers do with MSF. MSF Delivers focuses on midwife Sam Perkins who spent 9 months working in a MSF maternity unit in Masisi, a war torn area of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From Thursday 22nd til Tuesday 27th September you can see the incredible 3D photo-film MSF put together with film-makers duckrabbit to tell the story of Sam’s work. A 3D photo-film I hear you cry! What is that?

MSF often use photo films to show the work they achieve. Sometimes the stillness of an image can say more than an action packed film shot.  In practical terms video cameras are often cumbersome and guzzle energy which can be a problem in remote areas so photo cameras can be more accessible. 3D photography is an emerging technique and once the images are edited together it can create a compelling new medium. Pete and I went to the launch of the film last night where we donned futuristic specs to watch the film.

The film is excellent and inspiring. Seeing the determination of Sam, her team, and the women who use the clinic – often cross dangerous front lines on foot while in labour – made me very proud to play my small role in fund-raising for MSF.  I hope it will do the same for you too.

The 3D film is on in Spitafields Market in London from 10am til 6pm,  Thursday 22nd til Tuesday 27th September and only takes 6 minutes to watch so you can easily fit it into a lunch break or sightseeing at the weekend.

If you can’t make it to London there are several insightful short films about Sam’s work and the lives of women in Masisi on  the MSF Delivers website which is well worth a look.

I was in the MSF office when MSF Delivers was being put together. Imagine my delight when I was shown this:

Part of the work the clinic in Masisi does  is identifying at risk pregnancies such as breech birth and twins. Women who are found to be at risk of a complicated delivery are invited to live at the clinic from their 8th month of pregnancy onwards so help will be immediately available when they go into labour. While they are at the clinic they are offered health education covering labour, birth control, disease prevention and other skills, and they are also taught how to knit!

Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba

As we all know knitting has great benefits. In Masisi, the women make clothes for their new babies and it also helps pass the time in the build up to the birth date. If you’ve been pregnant, or have followed friend’s pregnancies, you’ll remember how tense the waiting can be. I’m hoping to find more about these knitters and their teacher and we will have more images to share with you very soon.

I like Sam’s quote from the MSF Delivers website about child birth:

“The pain, anticipation, exhaustion, fear and excitement are the same for all women – whether in Northampton or Nairobi. What isn’t is access to trained medical staff, care, surgical interventions, drugs and materials.”

While knitting usually isn’t as life changing as childbirth there is that connection between all of us. The casting on, the marvelling at producing your first few rows of garter stitch, the magic of wielding sticks to change string into fabric.

Familiar look of concentration Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba

We are all knitters. Sadly not all of us have access to basic necessities. This is why I support MSF.

If you feel inspired by this please do spread the work about MSF Delivers.  I don’t have midwifery skills but if I pass on the message to my friends and family that will be a few more people helping to support people like Sam.

MSF are launching an exciting new campaign next week which focuses on childbirth, called MSF Delivers. See what they did there, clever isn’t it!

To launch MSF Delivers MSF have made a superb 3D photofilm following MSF midwife Sam and her work in Congo. I’ve seen a preview without the 3D and it is excellent. You are all invited to view the film from 22nd – 27th September, 3d specs included, at Spitafields market, where it will be showing from 9am til 7pm everyday. The film lasts 6 minutes so if you are in the area it is easy to pop in and watch an incredible story unfold in  a lunchbreak or after work.

If you can’t make it to London there will be plenty of information on the MSF Delivers website which is coming soon.

We have some tie ins with p/hop coming next week to coincide with the launch of MSF Delivers. Watch this space…

Last Saturday, my rather fully packed backpack and I made our way to my local yarn store (Big Knitters) here in Cardiff. I was a little apprehensive and quite nervous. This was going to be my first ever Knit Surgery and I wanted it to be good.

Anna (the wonderful shop owner) had already set out her board with all the information for the event a good week before and I had tried to spread to word by leaving posters and flyers in many of the cafes in the area as well.

The first thing we did was to set up a little information corner right by the door so people could not miss it. And I promptly forgot to take a picture. Sorry. Next time, I promise! And then we settled down to see what would happen – having done our best to spread the word, it was now down to the knitters and customers to come and ask questions.

Sadly, for some unfathomable reason (the rugby? The weather? The end of the first week of school? We still have no idea.), it was an incredibly quiet day for the shop (and many of the other shops in the area, so the turnout of help-needing knitters wasn’t great. When finally a lady came through the door with her question in tow, I was promptly at a loss as how to help her – but I shall learn how to cast on a moebius in the round rather soon. As the lady wasn’t set on knitting the pattern she had brought in, we solved that problem by suggesting that she knit a rectangle and then sew it up while twisting on end of it. Not the ideal solution but she was quite happy with it as she could now “get on with the knitting”. During the day we also provided some extensive help with choosing patterns for a mother and daughter (not that Anna wouldn’t have done that anyway, but they got my opinion as well ). They were really lovely and it was wonderful to see the mother taking so much care about what to knit for her daughter who was very much appreciative of the effort.

Despite the poor turnout for the surgery we still managed to raise 60 pounds thanks to the help several avid collectors (long standing customers and friends with their children) who took it upon themselves to stand outside with the collection baskets to raise awareness, pass out information (MSF leaflets and p-hop postcards) and collect donations from other shoppers. And quite a few of the people who did come to the shop to browse or just quickly by some yarn also left donations before leaving. A very big and heartfelt “Thank you!” goes to all of you for helping and donating! And of course the money has already been passed on to p-hop. Wouldn’t want to waste time there.

Copyright Karen Wessel

And while we had hoped for a better turnout for the Knit Surgery, I had a very good time just watching and helping where I could and I think that, in retrospect, the quietness and low volume of people through the door was nice for the first try. I say first try because both Anna and I have already decided that there will be a repeat. We haven’t settled on a date just yet but the next Knit Surgery in Cardiff will likely be held in late October and we are aiming for at least another one before the end of the year.

If you would like to hold a Knit Surgery for p-hop in your town or city, please do! It’s fun and doesn’t take a lot of preparation and I’m more than happy to share the poster file I made to spread the word around the area.

Clyd is welsh for warmth, and this pattern is designed to do just that, conserve warmth.
I came up with the idea after a discussionin the p/hop Ravelry group, Clare had said that they would love to have more patterns suitable for beginner knitters, and a few other people had discussed designing patterns that were good for handspun yarns.
This pattern matches both of these things, it’s all knit (no purl stitches), increases are by using knit front and back, and there’s a single yarn over to make a button hole, decreases are using knit 2 together. It would be a great pattern to use as an introduction to knitting, definitely more enjoyable the traditional endless garter stitch scarf!

It uses just 55m of Aran or Heavy Worsted Weight yarn, so would also be a good use of those precious scraps of handspun yarn, but would work great in any commercial yarn base too.
I have a headband in a similar shape that I get lots of use out of it in Winter (and Autumn and Spring given the Welsh weather!), the button fastening, and shaping at the back mean you can move your head around lots, without the headband getting in the way.
If you’re an experienced knitter it’s a quick knit, so would be great for last minute Christmas presents.

To download Clyd visit the pattern page here.

We have a smashing new pattern for you as part of our Wool Week celebrations. The gorgeous Waterhouse Mitts were designed for p/hop by the generous Patricia Clift Martin and are a great introduction to stranded knitting.

Here’s Patricia’s introduction to her pattern:

These mitts represent an early foray into stranded colourwork for me. I have always found colourwork to be a bit intimidating (and I’m still not brave enough for steeks!) but this project showed me that I really didn’t need to be. Inspired by the wonderful architectural detail in Manchester Town Hall they are a simple but striking project for an advanced beginner. As the new academic year approaches these would be a lovely gift to make in school or college colours.

If you are daunted by colour work these are small enough to not be overwhelming and the straightforward pattern is easy to get the hang of. There’s a great video tutorial on the knittinghelp.com (scroll down for the colourwork video, there are videos for both continental and english styles of knitting).

You can find the pattern here, as always for a donation to MSF.

Stay tuned as we will have more fantastic new patterns here very soon…

This week is National Wool Week in the UK with lots of yarny events happening all over the country.  To coincide with the celebration of wool we’ve got some exciting new patterns ready for launch so keep an eye on our blog and twitter feed for the latest news.

Knitting teacher and designer Karen Wessel aka Quesselchen is holding a knit surgery in return for donations to p/hop. Can’t kitchener? Confused by cables? Pop along to Big Knitters on Wellfield Rd in Cardiff from 11am to 2pm on Saturday 10th September where Karen will solve your knitting problems. In return it’s the usual p/hop ethos, make a donation based on how much pleasure/perseverance/persistence/insert p-word of choice you gained from your new skill.

Our Ravelry group is busy this month with a Cranford Mitt-a-long. It’s very easy to join in and littlelixie is even throwing in some challenges such as writing a Cranford haiku to add to the fun. All the details are here and there are badges and project pictures you can use on the pattern page here. If you’re not already on Ravelry it is well worth joining. It is free and a great resource for knitters and crocheters.