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!

The I Knit Tea Party for Haiti last Saturday was great fun and a huge success.

The plan for the tea party was simple, knitters brought along a cake which was then available for a suggested donation along with tea or coffee. I should have known, knitters being as generous as they are, that there wouldn’t have been just two or three cakes to choose from. People really went to town and I have never seen so much cake. There was pumpkin cake, cup cakes, chocolate beetroot cake, flapjacks, rum cake, brownies, fruit cake, yarn cake, you-name-it cake, all of it delicious.

Photo from I Knit London

As well as the huge variety of cake there were several other ways to take part and raise money. Before the tea party the lovely staff at I Knit asked yarn and book companies as well as local businesses for raffle prizes. They were so overwhelmed by people’s generosity that the prizes went further than the raffle. There was a game of pass the parcel with a small knitterly prize in each layer as well a prizes for the most popular cakes as voted for by the guests. As knitters chatted and sampled cake a fuzzy old teddy bear was passed around, the challenge was to guess his name for £1 a go.

Photo from I Knit London:  Ness and the Bear

There was also a wordsearch and a quiz which were also £1 a go with a prizes for the winners.

Knitters also used their own initiative and organised a lucky dip bin with people donating a skein of spare yarn. It was a lovely afternoon. I met lots of new knitters as well as old friends and spread the word about p/hop with samples knits and patterns.

I’d like to give a BIG THANK YOU everyone who came and took part, who donated a raffle prize, ate cake and of course I Knit London.

We raised £650 which is fantastic. MSF can provide four surgical kits and more with that which will certainly make a difference to the Haitian people’s recovery.

Most of the cake was eaten on the day however Ness brought the leftover cake into the MSF UK office. It was very much appreciated and didn’t last long!

If you’re feeling inspired to host your own tea party or event please do get in touch (P-HOP@london.msf.org). It really is brilliant that tea, cake and knitting really can make a difference!

I’ve recently come across a couple of knitting groups organising fundraisers for MSF and Haiti. This is a great idea. What’s better than meeting with like minded people to swap knitting tips and yarn and enjoy some tea and cake while raising money for a brilliant charity.

These sort of events are fairly easy to set up. If you already meet at a venue all you need to do is advertise your next meeting as a fundraiser (you may get some new members), organise some raffle prizes (it’s amazing how generous people are when you ask), ask people to make cakes and then suggest a minimum donation for tea and cake. You can print out some p/hop patterns for donations and spread the p/hop word amongst other knitters.

If you’re feeling inspired please get in touch (email P-HOP@london.msf.org) or contact the MSF fundraising team as we can send out a pack with posters and leaflets about MSF as long as we have enough notice.

I knit London are holding a tea party on Saturday 23rd January 2010 from 1pm onwards with raffle prizes, lucky dips, quizzes and cake. The I Knit shop details are here.

The London Stitch and Bitch group are having a special yarn swapping for donations meeting for Haiti on Monday 1st February from 6pm at the Stamford Arms, 62 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9LX

If you are having an event let me know and I’ll post the details here. If you’d like to write a review of a fundraising event for the blog we’d love to hear from you.

Cybil and Rooknits are organising a UK version of the Barn Raising Quilt (featured in the book Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together). The pattern is currently being made available for free by the authors, Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown, to raise money for MSF USA.

The completed blanket/s will be raffled at the iknit weekender on the 11th and 12th of September and all money raised will go p/hop.

If you would like to be a part of this great project and contribute a square or two click here. This link will take you to the Knitalong news page. A PDF version of the pattern can be found at the bottom of the page by clicking on “this document”.

Instructions

Squares need to be made in sock yarn, you need approx 16g of yarn. They are knit on 2.75mm needles (or to a gauge of 7 – 7.5 stitches per inch). We are looking for completed squares that are blocked to 7.5 inches.

Please label the completed square(s) with your name, the name of the yarn (if you know) and whether it is machine washable or not – we are hoping to complete one blanket with machine washable yarn.

Once completed please message Cybil or Rooknits on Ravelry for an address to send the squares to. Alternatively, they will also be collected at the UK Ravelry day in Coventry on 6th June. 

Also, if you don’t have time to knit a square but have some spare sock yarn you would like to contribute for other knitters to make a square from them please get in touch.

There is a group on Flickr for you to add photos of your knitted squares click here to have a look.

If you’re not on Ravelry but would like more information please contact us at p/hop.

Three facts gleaned from the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo:

1. Knitters are super competitive
2. They like a glass of wine
3. Alice (the organiser) does an awful ‘British’ accent!

Arriving late to the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo thanks to my complete lack of knowledge of west London, the first game was already in full swing. Shrieks of glee and, more often, frustration filled the room above Alice’s west London shop as the numbers were called from the front (jump and jive 35 proving particularly elusive for some)…

Booze and gambling - a typical knitters night

After introductions for our benefit (real names and ravelry names), we were soon into game two. Drinks flowed, jokes were made and many pages of numbers were spotted by many different coloured pens. Once all the prizes had been won, including a skein of Doctors Without Borders yarn (which I didn’t even know existed), the fiendish light of Bingo left the crazy knitters’ eyes and the air was filled with laughter, the gurgling of wine into plastic glasses and the inevitable click-clack of needles (I didn’t take my knitting, which was a mistake – I shall now carry it to all knitting related events). An evening that I had been slightly apprehensive about, being fairly new to both knitting and bingo, had turned out to be a real giggle…

Now, apart from being a great social event (subjects of discussion including knitting, tattoos, Japan, knitting, sex-shop ownership and knitting just from what I heard), the night was also a p/hop fundraiser for the work of MSF and again confirmed for me the fantastically generous nature of knitters in general. From money taken for the bingo and collected for the raffle, over £300 ended up in the p/hop coffers. An amazing effort!

So, thanks so much to Alice, to all who attended, to the prize donors, to those who provided the wine and food and to all those who bought raffle tickets… You have done brilliantly and your efforts are much appreciated.

For info on the next Mad Knitters Charity Bingo night, go to the Socktobus blog and scroll to the bottom…….. It’s well worth it!

Alice Yu of Soctopus is hosting the Mad Knitter’s Charity Bingo on Friday the 8th of May 2009 from 6.30pm to 10pm in London. It will be held at the Soctopus shop – Studio 9, 132-134 Lots Road, London Sw10 0RJ (entrance from Tetcott Rd)

Alice has kindly offered to donate proceeds from ticket sales and raffle to MSF.

Tickets for bingo cost £5 and are available to purchase on the Soctopus blog here.

If you can’t make it on the night, there will be an Out of Sight raffle. Raffle tickets are going to be p/hopped. It’s £5.00 per entry. Once you have made your p/hop donation, email Alice missmalice@mac.com with the amount and she will enter you into the draw.

To have a look at some of the fantastic prizes on offer click here

For further information on the Mad Knitter’s Charity Bingo get in touch with Alice +44 (0)20 7349 7226

In a frenzy of SkipNorth swapping this week, p/hop donations rocketed over £1,000. Reaching this amount is a significant achievement and goes to show that £5 or £10 here and there really adds up!

Whether you enjoyed a free pattern, swapped some stash at SkipNorth or watched Pete knit up a mountain, your support of p/hop goes a long way.

Just how far….

Buy a 5,000 Litre water bladder which provides drinkable water for 1,000 people a day.

Buy 280 mosquito nets.

Buy enough delivery kits to help bring 125 babies safely into the world.

© François Dumont

Thanks to all you fabulous knitters and p/hoppers out there for making this possible. Here’s to the next target!

*Based on prices in 2008

Post photo: A mother and child in an MSF feeding programme in Ethiopia. By Francesco Zizola

Thanks to ChrissyG (and 42 others), we have met the first p/hop target…. £500!

Well done and thank you all. Next up: quadruple figures.

Better go and donate for the wool from Jacqui and the needles from Isobel then. Put my money where my mouth is. First lesson on Wednesday!