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!

Dee, MSF Ireland’s excellent and intrepid Press Officer writes about her first experience of the wonderful world of knitting shows.

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One of my strongest memories from primary school is from third class. I was about 8 years old and the teacher Mrs. Sutton had to stay late after school to untangle a ball of orange wool I’d managed to get caught around the metal legs of the desk. All we had to do was knit 12 rows, sew the ends together and voilá, home-made hair band. The cool girls had multi-coloured versions. Show-offs. Mine more resembled a bedraggled tea towel by the time I finally cast-off. As my report said ‘knitting isn’t Deirdre’s strong point.’

So I was a bit nervous approaching the Knitting and Stitching show at the RDS in Dublin last week. I was delighted MSF had secured the free stand space and that we were bringing p/hop to Ireland on its first overseas mission. I’m really keen to promote MSF to wider Irish audiences and the chance to meet with 30,000 Knitters and Stitchers from all corners of the country, and from further flung shores as it turned out, was too good to miss. I can happily chat for and to Ireland about MSF. But the thought of having to blag my way through double-knit, cable stitch, 4 ply, and the whole lexicon of knitting-speak was bringing me out in a cold sweat.

Thankfully, Clare came over for the first day to get us started. The samples she brought with her were gorgeous. I quite fancied myself in the Cranford Mittens – from to ladette to lady in just 50grams of sock yarn. Within a few minutes of the doors opening, we had our first visitors, two lovely ladies from Dublin who thought p/hop was a great idea. From then on there was a constant stream of visitors to our stand and the day flew. Grannies and granddaughters, friends, teenagers, sisters, mums, and even the occasional Dad stopped by. With the rich tradition in Ireland of knitting for charity – from blankets for premature babies, to teddy bears for orphanages in Africa – the response to p/hop was more enthusiastic than I could have imagined. And no one minded when I didn’t know which sock patterns were toe-up (Ruth’s Harvest socks for future reference).

In total we raised over 1460 EUR over the three days we were at the show, which was terrific. We also experienced an incalculable amount of goodwill for MSF. It was heart-warming and so much fun. Knitters, stitchers, quilters, crochet-ers – you rock. Especially the crocheters who were so generous even though we didn’t have any crochet patterns, something which we’re eager to remedy. P/hop will be back in Dublin next year but in the meantime, keep in touch with us online. The EUR donation button is up and running so you can download the pattern of your choice and donate without any nasty conversion charges. You can also visit MSF Ireland’s newly revamped website at www.msf.ie Spread the p/hop good news. See you next year by which time I hope to have finished at least one mitten.

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Deidre is MSF Ireland’s champion press officer, based in Dublin. You can find the MSF Ireland web site here.

If you would like to blog-a-long with p/hop the details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

Wow, what a week it’s been.

We took p/hop to Ireland which was great fun. The reception from Irish knitters was brilliant, watching people stroll past the stand, read the words “Médecins Sans Frontières” above the stand, watch their expressions turn to befuddlement as they saw knitting and MSF info together. As soon as people twigged what p/hop was about their look confusion turned to one of sheer joy. It was MSF Dee’s (MRS Ireland’s press officer) first encounter with the knitting world so I won’t say too much here as she is going to write a post for us about her experience.

What I will say is thank you very much Ireland and Twisted Thread for donating the stand. Thanks also to my knitter friend bioniclaura and her husband who had me to stay and were my taxi service during my visit which was very much appreciated.

On Saturday we headed northwards to King’s Norton for the much anticipated Fibre Flurry. We were not disappointed. It was a wonderful show with many familiar faces as well as people new to p/hop.

Whitehart/Sadie and Thimblina/Joy volunteering on the stand

Mikayla the wonderful organiser took on the raffle for us so we could concentrate on the patterns. The fabulous Lizard Ridge blanket was the top prize as well as lots of beautiful yarns and books from the vendors. You may remember the blanket was made by our Ravelry group so we were working out which squares were the ones we had knit. At one point Ros (one of our marvellous volunteers) and I claimed the same square which reduced us to fits of giggles in a I’m Spartacus, no I’m Spartacus manner. Here’s Diagon/Amy (another fab volunteer), Rooknits and Baby Roo (who are tireless p/hop supporters, Roo coordinated the blanket squares and sewed the blanket together) and me. We didn’t want to give the blanket away but it was won fair and square by Babylonglegs. I wish I’d had my camera handy when we held the raffle as the look on her face was priceless. I have it on good authority that she is already making good use of the blanket.

We also met some very young p/hop supporters one of whom kindly modelled the Stina baby kimono for us.

We also had some hand modelling to show off the ever popular Cranford Mitts. Larissa (who very kindly went out of her way to give me and all the p/hop clobber a lift to Fibre Flurry at stupid o’clock in the morning) is modelling this pair. This month we are having a Cranford Mitt-a-long in the Ravelry group. It’s such a fab pattern and uses such a small amount of yarn it’s perfect for gifts. Please join in, the pattern is here and the thread on Ravelry is here.

The mitten on the left is blocked (and was hastily dried in the car on the way to Birmingham), the right hand one is unblocked as it was finished just as the show opened.

As well as the Mitt-a-long the birthday blog-a-long starts today to help p/hop celebrate it’s second birthday. What a year it’s been. I think that deserves another post.

I will finish here with some very exciting news. WE HAVE RAISED OVER £20 000 FOR P/HOP!!!

This is not including the money from Fibre Flurry or Ireland (remember you can now donate in Euros) or the US dollar donations. The generosity of knitters is overwhelming. The thing I most love about p/hop is it’s not just one person who makes this work, it’s hundreds of people. From Natalie’s original idea at a kitchen table, to Pete’s tireless enthusiasm, to all the designers who have donated patterns, the festival organisers who donate a stand, the people who give up their time to help at festivals, everyone who has made a donation for a pattern of a p/hopped skein of yarn and most of all YOU!!! We couldn’t do it without you.

Let’s not forget what this is all about. Please take a moment to visit the MSF website and see what your help has done to make someone else’s life that much better.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

p/hop is off to Ireland. We are very excited. While the main part of our project is based in cyberspace our contact with people in real life has been limited to the UK so it will be great to spread the p/hop word to the visitors to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the RDS, Dublin from Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st October.

We’ve added a way to donate in Euros. You can click the link to MSF Ireland’s p/hop page. Or, you can click the big link on the right —–>

If you are visiting the Knitting and Stitching show please stop by stand N11 and say hello to the MSF Ireland team. I (Claire) will be there on Thursday helping out too and trying to resist buying lots of gorgeous Irish yarn.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Twisted Thread for donating the stand at the show.

It’s a busy old month at p/hop HQ. As well as setting up p/hop with MSF Ireland, preparing for the Birthday-blog-along, moving a yarn mountain, and going to Ally Pally we are going to Fibre Flurry!!!

I’m really looking forward to this event which will be full of excellent stands as well as p/hop. There will be a raffle which Mikayla the lovely organiser is putting together for us. As well as the vendors donatating prizes you have the chance to win something very special. You may remember earlier in the year our brilliant supporters in the Ravelry group made a barn raising blanket which was raffled off at I knit. They also made this stunning Lizard Ridge blanket which designer Laura Aylor kindly gave us permission to use.

I can’t wait to see it in real life. Thank you to everyone who made a square, donated yarn and to Roo who sewed the blanket together.

We will also be launching two new patterns at Fibre Flurry so please stop by the stand and say hello. Don’t worry if you can’t make to Fibre Flurry, the new patterns will be launched on the website on the first week of November to coincide with the birthday blog-a-long. Have you signed up yet?

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Fibre Flurry is on Saturday 30th October at St Nicolas Place. King’s Norton, Birmingham. Please see the Fibre Flurry website for more details.

If you’re off to the Knitting and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace this weekend please stop by stand RCG11 which is run by the knitastic people at Stitch London. We didn’t get a stand of our own there but dynamic and generous Stitch London have kindly given us a corner of their stand which has copies of the Stina, Trinity and Cranford Mitts patterns for you to pick up in return for a donation to MSF as well as samples of those patterns for you to touch, examine and sniff (don’t worry about sniffing yarn in a hall full of knitters, it’s perfectly normal there).

If you’re familiar with those patterns it’s worth stopping by anyway to look at the Stitched Selves which are on display. They look brilliant and you might spot someone you know in knitted form.

If you can’t make it to Ally Pally there are still loads of pattern books and yarn from the Loop Yarn Swap still available for donations to MSF on Ravelry. Please take a look. The yarn mountain in my flat is going down but it’s still a mountain. Thank you and Happy knitting.

Part of the yarn mountain.

Loop Knitting shop in Islington held a yarn swap for MSF on Sunday. There was a sale table for people selling off unwanted stash and another for straightforward donations to MSF. The shop was buzzing and there were some interesting yarns on offer…

…there was also cake…

Susan, owner of Loop, and Juju sampling the cake

and I spied Liz (who thought of the yarn swapping event) knitting some Cranford Mitts.

It was a really fun event and is the sort of thing which can be organised on a much smaller scale at your local knitting group.

£442.39 was raised for MSF on the day. There is loads of yarn, pattern books and magazines left over which I’m gradually adding to the p/hop group on Ravelry to help raise even more money for hygeine kits, logisticians, vaccinations and all the other life saving work MSF does. If you have any unloved yarn in your stash you can offer it to MSF too through our Ravelry group.

A huge thank you to the staff at Loop, Liz who came up with the idea for the event and everyone who came and swapped yarn.

This was p/hop’s second year at the iknit weekender and it was lovely to be back in familiar surroundings. The iknit weekender holds some sentimental value for me as it’s when I first enquired about the p/hop volunteer role and met the energetic and indomitable Pete.

As always we had a smashing team of volunteers on the p/hop stand ready to guide knitters to the patterns they would get the most pennies per hours of pleasure from. Yellowpurplezebra Claire and Atomicknitting Emma did a sterling job on Friday as well as my non-knitting yet understanding other half Alex who helped me get everything to the venue and set up.

Claire and Emma on the Stand

On Saturday two p/hop designers, Thimbilina Joy and ProbablyJane, volunteered which was great as they got to hear the squeals of delight and enthusiasm their patterns generate. SarahAbroad and Knittingtastic Rachel also did an excellent job on the stand with their depth of knitting knowledge and enthusiasm for MSF. I think it’s really important that different people get to enjoy volunteering with p/hop. It helps keep the banter fresh and reflects the inclusive nature of the project. Keep an eye on the website and our Ravelry group for further volunteering opportunities. It’s fun, you get to talk about knitting, fondle other people’s yarn shopping (after asking their permission) and do your bit for an excellent organisation.

We held an excellent raffle thanks to the vendors and prize donors. We had a very special prize, the beautiful barn-raising blanket, which has been made by p/hop supporters, which drew a lot of attention to our stand.

Alex and Beanz model the blanket

As well as the p/hop group I’d like to say a massive thank you to the following people Sunflower Swifts, IKnit London , KAL media, The Bothered Owl, Halifax Spinning Company, Natural Dye Studio, High Fibre Design, Ida’s House, Sparkleduck, easyknits, Blacker Designs, Fyberspates, KnitterScarlet, Gary Northfield, Loop, Anova Books, Prick Your Finger, Selvedge, Artisan Yarns, Knitwtiches, picperfic’s fluff’n’stuff, The Knitting Noras, Debonnaire, volunteer and p/hop designer Joy who donated some gorgeous sock yarn and pattern from one of her yarn clubs, volunteer Emma who donated some of her Atomic Knitting kits and Knitlewes who donated some rare Blue Face Leicester and Swaledale conservation yarn.

I’d also like to thank Gerard and the brilliant IKnit team for all their help and support.

As always it was a fun and friendly event and the best part was the response from you, the knitters. I know I’m always rambling on about p/hop being a sum of parts but it’s true and we couldn’t do it with out you. We raised a massive £933 for MSF which will help a lot of people.

PS. If you’re wondering where the fabric on the stand is from it’s a traditional East African kanga (sarong) from Tanzania and Kenya.

We’re looking forward to the the IKnit weekender on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th September.

We’ll have a stand there so if you’re visiting the marketplace please come and say hello. We’re holding a raffle with some great prizes including a swift, beautiful stitch markers, some gorgeous yarn from Loop, a Fyberspates pattern kit with some stunning Scrumptious yarn, a signed and cartooned Gary the Sheep book, a beautiful knitted tea cosy donated by Rhonda (who you may remember held a tea party event for p/hop earlier in the year) as well as books and yarn.

There’s also a rather special prize. This beautiful blanket has been lovingly crafted p/hop supporters.

We’ll also have a new pattern on display. This will be on the website next week if you can’t make it to the IKnit Weekender.

If you’re coming to IKnit Weekender please do stop by the stand and say hello.

Back in August myself and other p/hop volunteer Jenny boarded a train north to Scotland loaded down with knitting samples and patterns to take p/hop to Knit Camp. It was well worth the long journey as…

…we had a lovely, bright stand to show off all the p/hop samples, check out all those socks…

…we met some very famous knitters and told them about p/hop…

… here’s Jared Flood and Norah Gaughan…

…and Debbie Stoller (thanks to her I re-learnt how to knit and crochet)…

… the Provost of Stirling (like the mayor for those of you South of the border) who is a sheep farmer (he farms Shetlands – yes, that’s why I look so excited!)….

…watched the Sheep to Sweater (Back to Back) challenge take place in the courtyard next to our stand…

…met hundreds of lovely knitters from all over the planet (China, Japan, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Europe, Australia as well as the UK to mention a few)…

…and raised £835.58 for MSF which was donated to their Pakistan floods appeal.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came and said hello and made a donation, as always knitters are a fantastic bunch of people, to all the other stallholders who made the event fun, and to the organisers for donating our stand and providing our accommodation and meals which meant more money could go to MSF.

I stayed up in Edinburgh for a few days after Knit Camp and went to a few Edinburgh fringe festival events one of which was MSF supporter Josie Long’s show. She volunteers in the MSF office so I asked if I could take along the collecting buckets to her show. As she’s brilliant and kind she said yes so myself and other MSF volunteer Colin held collection buckets at the end of her show. The audience were very generous, helped along by Josie’s excellent appeal to do good in the world and we raised a further £185.48 taking our Scotland fundraising total to £1021.06. I’m looking on this as p/hop’s first international event (tongue firmly in cheek) but who knows where p/hop will go next?
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OK, our next event isn’t international (depending on your point of view) but it will be fun. We’ll be at the IKnit weekender at the Royal Agricultural Halls in Victoria on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th September. If you’re there do come and say hello to us.