Following the storming £120 sale earlier this year of a vibrant hand knitted blanket, the marvellous Lyn (Christi1) has just donated another beautiful thing to P/hop for auction on Ebay, this time raising a fabulous £73.
A beautiful Handknit Valentine Shawl in cornflower blue with delicate lace pattern made from hand dyed Wild Fire Fibres Tempo 4 ply yarn – absolutely gorgeous.

Ebay seems to do well for us – we seem to be good at getting the message out and finding buyers who appreciate the joy of a hand crafted creation. If anyone else fancies having a go and wants help with listing etc, get in touch with me via Ravelry and I’ll try to help.

Well done to all concerned
Jo aka josp on ravelry.

There’s a brand spanking new way to donate to our Just Giving fundraiser using your mobile phone via Vodaphone’s JustTextGiving service.

Your donation will go directly to MSF and no money is deducted for admin fees.

Just text message PHOP99 £(insert amount you would like to donate) and text this to 70070.

You will then receive a receipt by text and the gift aid option.

MSF receives the donation and Gift Aid within 10 days of the end of the month you sent your text in.

I think, like many people, I first became aware of p/hop through a stand at Woolfest.  I wasn’t too sure what knitting had to do with Médecins Sans Frontières, but I knew all about the pleasures of knitting, so this was something I was very happy to support to raise funds for MSF.

A few years ago my husband, an Anaesthetist, spent 3 weeks in a hospital in rural Bangladesh working with a visiting American surgeon.  Together they performed surgery on patients who otherwise could not have been treated, and far more importantly for the long term benefit of the hospital staff and the local community, they trained the staff in new skills and helped out with equipment.  After hearing about his experiences there and knowing what a difference trained medical professionals can make in situations around the world I tend to notice when MSF is mentioned in the media.

I recently had the opportunity to help with a flock of sheep in dire need of aid.  On Ravelry.com news spread about a flock of about 70 sheep, mainly Spelsau (an ancient breed of Nordic sheep), that were facing slaughter in Denmark after the Police had intervened when they weren’t cared for properly.  A lady with considerable experience of shepherding who lives on a farm in a remote part of Sweden wanted to rescue them and take them back to Sweden with her.  Renee has a group on Ravelry following her spinning adventures in Sweden and they decided to support Renee in financing the rescue of these sheep and transporting them 700 miles to her farm.  So, I became the proud adoptive mother of first one, and then two sheep from this flock.

The rescue sheep arrive at their new home. Photo courtesy of Renee Darley

Now is the time to make a confession about the size of my fleece stash – let’s just say it is contributing to the insulation of my home!  To be sent the fleece from my adopted sheep every year would be lovely, but might limit my other fleece purchasing.  The solution was obvious.  I help moderate a group on Ravelry that is full of sheep breed enthusiasts from all around the world – I am very proud of how international a group we are.  They love getting fleece from different breeds, I was faced with too much fleece and we didn’t have any sheep mascots for our Ravelry group.

So the solution was obvious – we could combine our rescued mascots, the international membership of our Ravelry group and another Raverly group that fundraises for an international organisation that provides medical care for people in need around the world.  We will be sharing out the fleece from our adopted mascots among group members who will in turn donate to p/hop.  I just love win win situations!

Photo courtesy of Renee Darley

Our adopted sheep are Blacker, a black mainly Jacob ram with the most amazing horns and Dagrún, a Spelsau ewe.  We now have their picture on our group page, along with some brief details of how they, as rescued sheep, will be helping raise funds through p/hop for those in need of aid from MSF.

Image courtesy of JaneKAL & the Blacker & Beyond group

It has been lovely to share the p/hop story with our international group members who weren’t previously aware of how knitters could fund raise for MSF.  Now that they do know all about p/hop, I hope that after donating when they share Blacker & Dagrún’s fleece, that they may also think of p/hop when they enjoy spinning and knitting the fleece.

Hello to everyone,

For those who don’t know me, I’m Lyn, and this is just a quick note to update you on a recent ebay auction to benefit MSF and p/hop.

Here’s the story: I knitted a large scrap yarn blanket (the multicoloured kind – think technicolour dream coat) which ended up being about 5 by 3 feet, made of merino/cashmere/nylon sock yarn in lots of little different coloured mini skeins. I used this free pattern from ravelry by Debbie Orr: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/zig-and-zag-sock-yarn-pram-baby-blanket. As I tend to knit because i enjoy the process, rather than because I particularly need the finished product, I decided that someone should have it who really liked it and wanted to use it. with this in mind, I contacted p/hop (you can take a look at this discussion if you like: (http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/p-hop/1515251/1-25) and through contributions from all the members, decided to offer it up for sale on ebay. A very helpful raveler, Jo (aka josp on ravelry) offered to coordinate the actual sale. within a few days, everything was organised, the auction was being publicised on ravelry, twitter, facebook and by word of mouth and all we had to do was sit back and nervously bite our nails in anticipation!

To begin with, the total rose ever so slooowly, but (watched by anxious eyes) it topped 30 pounds, then 50, then 80, and on the last nerve-wracking day, climbed over the 100 pound mark and finally sold, to a very generous person, for the grand total of 122 pounds!

I’d like to thank (ha! I sound like I’ve won the Oscars… but seriously I am really grateful to everyone!) p/hop for first of all taking me seriously, then coming up with all these useful suggestions (someone even said we should time the sale so that it ends on a Friday, apparently people are more generous on that day of the week – where do people come up with these things?!), everyone who read the discussion, contributed to it,organised the auction, publicised the event, bid on the blanket and finally the very lucky successful bidder who now has a beautiful (if I do say so myself!) blanket to enjoy.

This whole experience was a bit of an experiment because to my knowledge, p/hop hasn’t auctioned items off on ebay before, so it was a learning curve for all of us, not only me. but in my opinion, it’s had a fantastic outcome and will hopefully be the first of many successful fundraisers for MSF and p/hop!

Lyn x

My first ever blog post – be gentle with me!

P-hop sucks you in, its tentacles of humanitarian goodness creep out and grab you.

Happily lurking on Ravelry, I pipe up and the next thing I know I am Ebay – seller extraordinaire for the most gorgeous blanket.

Created by Christi1 (aka Lyn) to Debbie Orr’s pattern it has been generously donated for p-hop/MSF and we are auctioning it on Ebay! It is made from hand dyed mini skeins by Xenia Baxter at Art Of Xen, in 4ply 80% merino/ 10% cashmere/ 10% nylon superwash. The yarn alone cost £70 plus the hours of knitting that went into it make it a unique work of art to be treasured for generations.

So, tell your friends, colleagues and everyone with taste about this beauty. The auction ends on Friday 25th Feb at 8pm. Spread the word (Tweet about it, blog about it share the link on facebook or social network of choice, the more the merrier).

If this works for us, it could be the first of many.

That link again – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170603811385#ht_922wt_932

Happy bidding

Jo

Like all the best teams we’re off to the finals at the Emirates Stadium, no, not for a footie final but the finals of the Just Giving awards. You may remember we were shortlisted in the Most Creative Fundraiser category in the 2011 awards, which was thrilling enough, but to make it to the final three is very, very exciting and also a great honour.

The awards are on Thursday 10th of February at the Emirates Stadium. Pete is giddy at the thought of Emirates as he’s a huge Arsenal fan and Natalie and I are both excited yet wondering what to wear as we don’t go to smart events all that often. I may well wrap myself up in the p/hop samples. I’m going to try to find a way of tweeting at the event so I can keep our lovely supporters, i.e. YOU, involved.

Our Ravelry group has produced some wonderful reasons why they think p/hop is special on hearing the award news. Here are a few of them:

Ros said ” I was just looking at the other nominees in the JustGiving awards and it made me realise the thing I like most about p/hop: I get the pleasure and so I give in response whereas so many fund-raisers are about sponsoring other people to do fun or interesting things.”

Jael said “p/hop is also very inclusive (if you like yarn) – by its very nature it can potentially involve so many more people.”

Purletta said “The other good thing about p/hop is that not only do we get pleasure from doing the knitting but often we also give pleasure to other people by making gifts of the knitted object. For example, loads of the Cranford mitts were knitted for other people. It seems so much more productive than going on a sponsored walk or something like that.”

We also went on to discuss how many fundraisers involve exercise and therefore sweating which resulted in Probably Jane coining the following p/hop slogan:

p/hop, the less sweaty way to give.

Pete might dispute the sweaty nature of knitting. Will he finish that scarf in time for the award ceremony?

… my hair stylist, my local yarn shop, my bus driver…

As you may have noticed it’s the awards season with Baftas, Globes of Gold and a small man named Oscar filling our news headlines.

However it’s not just Hollywood that has awards. p/hop has been shortlisted for a Just Giving Award in the Most Creative Fundraiser category. This is very exciting. The judges are meeting today so we will soon know if we are in the final three which would mean a trip to the Emirates Stadium (meaning Pete would have to finally finish his scarf) for the awards ceremony. Even if we don’t make the final three it’s great to be shortlisted. You can read about us and the other deserving shortlisters here on the Just Giving website.

If you use twitter you can also help us with the Shorty Awards, twitter’s annual award ceremony. At the moment Justin Bieber and his many fans seem to be dominating the charity category but I’m sure knitters can take over and get us in the top 5. This isn’t because we want to win (well ok, we do a little) but if we get and stay in the top five it’s a great way to spread awareness about p/hop and about MSF. The Shorty website does seem a tad wonky so if your vote doesn’t show up please try again.

If you would like to vote for us please visit the Shorty Awards website, nominating @msf_phop in the #charity category.

It’s been lovely reading the reasons you have given for nominating p/hop. Here are a few of them:

@andallthatstash I nominate @msf_phop for a Shorty Award in #charity because it gives a close knit community an international goal

@JenACknitwear I nominate @msf_phop for a Shorty Award in #charity because... it’s such a simple, inclusive idea and an amazing cause.

@Gingoddess I nominate @msf_phop for a Shorty Award in #charity because it proves without doubt that small actions can do huge good

@alpacaaddict I nominate @msf_phop for a Shorty Award in #charity because…I can knit and save the world at the same time.

And one last one from Natalie who started p/hop…

@theyarnyard I nominate @msf_phop for a Shorty Award in #charity because… it’s like knitting love into every stitch.

You can also help us spread the word by letting your friends know about us and the shorty awards. Thank you to everyone who has voted so far.

The finalists in the Just Giving Awards are being announced on Thursday so we’ll let you know how we get on. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, except Pete who is still finishing his scarf…

One of our lovely, fantastic and generous supporters knits shawls, lots of beautiful shawls. One shawl in particular would be perfect for a bride on her special day. Woolgathered (aka plumbum on Ravelry) is looking for a special recipient for the stunning frozen leaves shawl in return for a donation to p/hop or directly to MSF.

Please take a look at her blog and her gorgeous knitting for further information.

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).

A little while ago, the people at Sony made a donation to MSF’s work. This in itself is not interesting to you of course (although very generous on their part). The point is that at the same time they donated a Sony mp3 player for us to do with as we wish (as long as it raises funds of course).

When I heard this, I snuck, ninja-like, into the fundraising department and liberated the little machine for you p/hoppers! Obviously, you can’t knit with it, but it’s great if you want to listen to your favourite Elton John/Meatloaf/Leon Lewis/Richard Cheese (delete as appropriate) album while your needles fly on that latest p/hop pattern…

What do you need to do? Well, nothing really. Basically, anyone that makes a p/hop donation on justgiving in the next two weeks (before 3rd May) will be added into the pot and then a name will be drawn at random. So basically, if you downloaded a pattern or you p/hopped some yarn or even if you just meant to donate out of pure good-heartedness and haven’t got round to it yet, do it soon because you have to be in it to win it.

By the way, I don’t know a huge amount about mp3 players, but what hi-fi say it’s “the best non-Apple ultra-portable we’ve seen”, so it must be a good one. Click here for the model and details. It’s a silvery coloured one…

Good luck!