The competition with Clare (gingerknitsUK) has well and truly started.

Pete's fighting face is designed to strike terror into the heart of Clare

Little did she know that my knitting inactivity was a clever and underhanded tactic to lull her into a contest, so I could become the first p/hop knitting champion of the world (PHKCOW)! Having feigned reluctance to the proposed knitting race, I have stormed off the blocks with a massive 11 rows on the first weekend….

‘I thought he’d forgotten how to knit!’ I hear you mutter.

And you were nearly right. But, when I heard about a local knitting group called Stitch Mark East (here for ravelry and here for facebook), I knew it was destiny… Not only did the experience inspire me to my personal record for number-of rows-knitted-in-one-go. And, not only was it a very cool and relaxing afternoon chatting and knitting. It was also in Cafe Oto in Dalston, which is a wicked place… With the company of Rachael (Stitch Mark East founder) and her friends, good tea and good music, 11 rows flew past in no time.

Clare, I have thrown down the gauntlet, the race is on… I await your response

*Stitch Mark East (or Knits of the Round Table as Rachel regrets not calling it) is on every Sunday in Cafe Oto, so if you are a local reading this, feel free to drop by.*

I meet Rachael, Stitch Mark East founder

Pete and I are having a knitting race. I need to finish a cabled scarf by the end of May as it’s for my Dad’s 70th and Pete needs to finish his scarf so Arsene Wenger can wear it. As an added challenge I need to write the scarf up as a pattern for p/hop.

There will be more on this next week so watch this space. There would be more on it today but Pete has left his knitting at home. Bad Pete.

Here he is back in January with his scarf, I think he’s knit about 2cm more since then. I can’t give him too much grief as I’ve been working on my scarf since April 2009.

I think Pete thinks us knitters get everything finished quickly so if you have something that is taking forever please join in. The more the merrier. Let us know about your WIP (Work In Progress) that is taking forever in the comments or over on Ravelry.

Happy (slow) Knitting.

I tell you what, you take your eye off p/hop for five minutes and suddenly you are sitting there stunned again. Woolly Wormhead donated half her pattern sales, the tragic events in Haiti have inspired massive generosity and something strange happened in York!

All we know is that Jane (probablyjane on Rav) was last seen boarding a train heading that way… Suspicious.

You see, I checked the p/hop total just now and there has a been a torrent of donations from our friends in the north, lots of them mentioning York… Has Jane been hypnotising Yorkshire-based knitters? If you woke up in York after the weekend, covered in wool, with a very generous, donation sized hole in your wallet or purse, this may explain it. Could be worse though – you could do an Elvis impersonation every time your phone rings or howl like a wolf whenever you hear the word ‘cake’….

In all seriousness, it is amazing. I remember not more than two weeks ago talking to Natalie about putting up the fundraising target from £10k to £12k and now we’re nearly there…. You all continue to humble and inspire me.

In other news, I have completely failed in my 100days promise. Basically I promised to do two rows a day on the scarf for 100 days starting on the 1st December. Til new year, I was probably doing ok; not every day, but making up for it when missing a day or two. Now, however, I am seriously lagging. Work was crazy in the immediate aftermath of the Haiti earthquake and, although still busy, we are not working every evening and weekend now (unlike our colleagues in the field). On top of this, I have started learning French (brilliant course) once a week and Saturday football with Les Mavericks started up again after the winter break. But enough with the excuses. I shall start again and I shall try to finish by the time the 100days project is over.

So, the time has come.

Some thought they would never live to see it, but it has arrived….

But first a bit of background. I started knitting as a result of p/hop and particular because of Natalie. One day a guy called Steve saw this blog and really liked the project. Steve is a physician so MSF is close to his heart anyway, but more importantly Steve is a knitter. In a fit of outrageous generosity (which I’m sure he now regrets), Steve offered a donation of $500 if I could knit anything! Now, I’ll do pretty much anything for $500 and so started my Arsenal scarf.

The challenge was that Steve would pay once I could get the scarf all the way round my neck. On holiday in Ghana that happened. So, myself, Anna, Zak and Janet (the guys I was staying with) made a song for Steve.

So here are MSF-Pete and the Ghana Hillbillies. Hope you like it Steve……….

Big thanks goes out to our very talented backing dancers: Bismarc, Roxine and their mate whose name escapes me….

Also, at one point, excuse my French – heat of the moment stuff!

So I have just been on holiday to Ghana! Went to visit my friends Zak and Anna, who are there doing work for a development organisation called AACO (don’t tell MSF). Had a wonderful time and did a lot of knitting. Made a couple of videos for p/hop, one I’ll post now and one in a week or so as I am off to France on Friday (it is my 30th this month so I have used it as an excuse to go on 2 holidays

Loads of boys in Ghana crochet by the way but I saw no other knitters.

More on my return from France and the next one is a bit special…..

What did I say? I said, “I will take a pic everyday (as long as I can) and post them here.”

This I have not done. However, I have been knitting! Which is the point… Been a crazy couple of weeks, including a football tour to Florence where we beat the Italians on penalties in the final. Then a week working from the MSF office in Brussels (great people, great beers, a lot of fun). Then a final football competition in Belgium, which we got knocked out of in the final on golden goal. Hence, not much photo taking and blogging, but………………………….

………………… lots of knitting (for me anyway). The only days I knitted nothing were the three days of football in which I was either playing, celebrating, commiserating or sleeping. Change of colour wasn’t too hard, although I have a funny line of white running through the red. Something to improve on I guess. Suggestions of what went wrong welcome…

Not sure how this happened....

And, unfortunately, my first hole. At least it’s a good one. I lulled myself into a false sense of security thinking I could watch Che at the same time as knit. Wrong!

Blame Che Guevara

Now things have settled down, I will begin charting progress again. I’m getting there though. Soon be time to get your cheque book out Steve!

Lazy day, woke up late, had breakfast late, knitted in bed… Getting to the point where (drumroll……………………………….) I’m gonna have to change colour wool! I have no idea how to do this, so it should be interesting. Feels like a milestone has been reached.

Day 6

The kids are alright!

4 – 1 to the Arsenal. Liverpool were nowhere! Knitted in side the Emirates, which was fun… Marie had a go too – don’t think this is cheating as we had to undo the stitches (her first knitting since primary school). All in all, a wicked evening….

Day 5

Marie on the needles

Marie, Ronda the scouser and Ronda's sister, Sharon the scouser

Went home from work yesterday and still not well enough to go in today, so short post this one. Managed six rows before passing out yesterday afternoon.

Close up for you this time….

Day 4

Back to bed now….

Less productive tonight – played 5-a-side, then the boys came round afterwards…. But, didn’t break the pledge and did two more rows while they battled it out on the playstation. They were a little bit surprised when I pulled out the wool and needles, but I only had to endure ten minutes of ribbing before I reminded them that it was my house and they were quite welcome to leave via the first floor window

Day 3

Got tickets for the Arsenal youth cup final with my friend Marie (also of MSF), so at least we might see the gooner kids win something this season!

Thanks for all your words of encouragement yesterday – really overwhelming! Not sure if Natalie’s competition is still open but feel free to comment here or with everyone else on yesterday’s post.

See you tomorrow and thanks again….