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….

Well, good to my word, here I am! Day two and another six rows completed… And, as I pat myself on the back and think about cracking a cold beer, I think “maybe six rows seems ridiculously easy to most people reading this…” So, I think it’s best to say that I am still at a stage where six rows bring beads of sweat to my brow and leaves lines on my face which weren’t there before.

Day 2

Maybe come day seven or eight I will be blitzing a massive twenty or thirty rows a session – we’ll see. In the meantime, I think I do deserve that beer.

Attending the Mad Knitters Charity Bingo shamed me in a way. Everyone there, including my better half (name of Syn), was a ‘proper’ knitter. I.E. they had actually finished something. This has bugged me since – I cannot make this claim. And so, this is my pledge to p/hop…

I will knit every day from now until the scarf is finished* wherever I may be…

Day 1

Today was day one. At Syn’s house, I got back on the horse. She rethread my knitting onto the new needles (my previous broke on the way back from Lesotho and yes it has been that long!) and I did five brand spanking new rows. And, you know what? I enjoyed it.

I will take a pic everyday (as long as I can) and post them here. You can follow the SPONSORED KNITTER thread to check my progress. So, until tomorrow….

*Needles breaking is an exception as are situations involving major injury, kidnap etc…

Hello all, this is half showing off ( I was in the gorgeous Lesotho), half proving that I am still doing the knitting and half a little reminder of why p/hop exists. I know that is three halves, but that’s because p/hop just keeps on giving.

My trip to Lesotho was amazing. As I said it was for the BBC Lesotho diary projects, which can be found here. I will let you know when the next instalments go up and you can check out the handywork.

“Come to the little knit meeting we have in Golders Green” said Jane over the phone.

Lovely, thought I. In a coffee shop, a couple of people around to chat to and get tips off. And, most importantly, no pressure….

Wednesday rolls around and I turn up at the the cafe. THERE ARE 19 KNITTERS! Small group? Suddenly I am immensely nervous. I walk straight through the cafe and order a medium black coffee and pop to the loo. I wash my face and return. The coffee is waiting for me – this must be an American style coffee shop as my medium coffee fills a vessel the size of a small bucket. I take a sip and, as casually as I can, stroll over.

Of course I am being ridiculous! The knitters are lovely and Jane and introduces me to the other 18. I forget each name as I am introduced and get my wool out.

Going so well.....

Jane is a great teacher and I am soon finishing a first row of twenty! This is easy! As I round the bend and start my second row, I am in very high spirits. Admittedly, I cannot knit and do anything else – such is the concentration I am devotingto the needles in my hands, but I am making progress…

Four rows in and Jane calls for a stop. This is a practice – the scarf needs to be much wider, so gotta do longer rows. ‘Piece of cake’ thinks I (also secretly glad that I get to “frog” so early in my knitting career).

I am a natural!

I tie my slip knot and off I go again. But something is different… It seems that the wool is tighter on the needles and I am having trouble maneouvering them properly. I begin to get stressed and tense (not helped by my two litres of thick, caffeine filled beverage)  and Jane wisely tells me to lower my shoulders from around my ears. But it’s no good, something has gone wrong. It seems like the needles are tiny and each movement restricts my movement more and more.

Uh-oh...

And they are kicking us out of the cafe.

I cannot believe I have learnt to knit and forgotten again in the space of two hours…I was so close.

But I am not easlily beaten and I will be back to Golders Green knitting group – at least I’ll have a chance to remember some names!

Pete's knitting status...

So, my name is Pete and I am the web editor for MSF UK. I am very happy to be writing my first post for the p/hop blog! It has been a little while coming….

I have a confession to make. I can’t knit! But, don’t leave… my involvement with p/hop, ravelry.com and Natalie and the knitters has inspired me and I am about to embark on my first project. How could I resist a hobby where you can ‘frog’.

I own no knitting paraphanelia, no wool, no yarn. If I’m honest, I still don’t know the difference between the two, although I am sure this will change. When I asked Natalie where one could acquire such things, she said ‘p/hop them’… Assuming she was suggesting that I knit my own knitting needles (a conceptual leap I was struggling with), I asked her to explain. “p/hop has moved on” was here nonchalant response. And she was right.

Not only have people started to give to MSF for the first donated pattern (courtesy of Jacqui), but people are starting to give materials and equipment to each other in exchange for p/hop donations. So far, DianneB has p/hopped some cobweb yarn,  Natalie has p/hopped a Yarn Harlot calendar and Katie p/hopped a spinning wheel! Check out the justgiving comments for loads more as well…

And with that I’m gonna leave you. Welcome to p/hop and I hope you enjoy the patterns. I’m off to work out how many pennies of pleasure a set of knitting needles and a ball of yarn (or wool) are going to cost me…

Happy frogging.