“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!

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!

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.