Well, we are back from Fibre East and have recovered from the busy weekend.  We had a great time catching up with supporters and meeting new ones.

I was there all day on Saturday and Clare all day Sunday and quite a good chunk of Saturday too.  I had a great time, even though it was scorchingly hot.  I was ever so grateful that our part of the marquee had a “window” in it, so we did manage a little bit of a breeze.  The “window” also set off our shawl samples really well, which were blowing in the breeze on a washing line, with the sun shining through the lace stitches.

As usual, we were helped by an army of supporters on both days.  I would like to give special thanks to Liz (aka Lzi on Ravelry), who drove Clare, me and all our stuff to Bedford, helped us set up and did a stint on the stand, and helped to pack up (make the stall rain safe) before driving me all the way home again!  I would also like to thank Judith (Jude00) and Mandy (Millywipstash) for helping set up and for folding lots of patterns and Jo (aka Shinybees) for helping on the stand, not forgetting Jane (ProbablyJane) who was a big  help at the end of the day.  I’m sure that Clare would like to thank lots of people too and will probably do that in the comments below!

It really wasn’t the weather to be wearing your knits, but the lovely and brave Tiger Bee donned her Spiral Socks, by Jane Lithgow, especially for us to take a photo!

Natalie (artandcraftlover) cleverly got around the heat wave by wearing a Teeny Tiny Teddy pinned to herself for us!

An the lovely Terri (designer donator of the Jacob Beanie) stopped by  to show us her knitting…

 

It wasn’t all fun and catching up, we also raised over £460 for MSF  – all in the name of yarn!

 

 

Dear knitters and crocheters

Thank you very much for all the hats you have made for MSF’s clinic in Pakistan. As you can see we were overwhelmed with your kindness.

These are only around half the hats as you made a whopping 433 hats (yes we counted them all).

At present we DO NOT need any more hats or other knitted items but please follow our blog as we may have requests in the future. Thank you again to all of you who sent hats in. They will be cherished.

Please browse our wide selection of patterns as you can still help MSF’s work in over sixty countries by donating for your hours of pleasure.

Best wishes

Clare

PS if you have made hats but haven’t sent them in why not take a look at the charity knitting groups on Ravelry who will know of lots of organisations who can use baby hats.

Before Pete finished his job at MSF I put him to work on one last p/hop job; measuring the hundreds of small hats you’ve generously made and sent in so we can sort them by size.

Of course he couldn’t resist trying some of them on.

We’ve been really overwhelmed with your generosity, making hats for premature babies and malnourished kids who are treated at MSF’s clinic in Qetta, Pakistan.

One person made a whopping 19 hats (which I think is more hats than I have made since I started knitting) and many knitting groups have got involved too. Check out these lovely hats made by the fab knitting group, Cannock Crafties.

In total there are over 250, yes two-hundred-and-fifty hats waiting to be shipped to Pakistan. Marvellous!

I’m packing up the hats tomorrow to send to the clinic, though they will probably go in the post on Tuesday of next week (22nd May). If you’ve got any hats you  haven’t sent in yet be quick.

Some of you have asked if we are going to do this again. That depends on the clinic, they are going to see how quickly they use the hats and let us know if they will need any more.

So once again, a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of you who have taken part.

Stay tuned to the blog as we’ve got many more patterns in the pipeline.

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The address to send your hats to is:
p/hop
c/o Clare Storry
MSF UK
67-74 Saffron Hill
London
EC1N 8QX

We’ve had a great response to our request for handknitted/crocheted small hats for the MSF hospital in Qetta, Pakistan.

THANK YOU to everyone who has sent hat(s) in so far. To date, we’ve received over 100 and my desk is by far the most colourful one in the office.

Hat sizes

I don’t know exactly how many hats the clinic needs, all they mentioned was they wanted a range of sizes from 25cm head circumference up to child age five. One of our marvellous volunteers in our Ravelry group (thank you dodiegirl) put together a list of hat sizes and here is what we have so far:

Premature
25cm-25.5cm / 9 ¾” 10” – 70 hats
28cm-29cm / 11”-11 ½” – 9 hats
30-31cm / 11 ¾” -12” – 8 hats

Baby
0-3 months (33cm-34cm / 13”-13 ½”) – 4 hats
3-6 months (36cm / 14”) – none
6-12 months (38cm / 15”) – 2 hats

Toddler /Child#
12-24 months (40cm-45.5cm) /(16”-18”) - 1 hat
2-5yrs (45.5cm-53cm)/ (18/20”) - none

As you can see we’ve got lots of the smallest size which is great but not many of the other sizes.

If you’ve made the smallest size we can still use them, but if you are still waiting to cast on please consider making some of the larger sizes. They’ll help keep young children with malnutrition warm and give them a better chance of survival.

A few of you have made hats in rib, with a brim, which are great as they will probably get more wear as they are so stretchy.

Pakistan clinic

If you’re wondering where your hats will end up you can get a glimpse of the clinic is this video featuring Scottish MSF doctor Marianne Stephens. I was lucky to meet her last week and she’s ace. A whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm. Life in the clinic is pretty tough, if  videos aren’t for you can read an article about her here.

She was really excited about the hats. If you’ve just seen this and want to make some hats to send to the clinic in Qetta the details are here. I’m aiming to send the first batch out at the end of April.

Knitters and crocheters, you are awesome!

Thank you!

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When you have finished your hats please send them to:
p/hop
c/o Clare Storry
MSF UK
67-74 Saffron Hill
London
EC1N 8QX

We’ve already had a great response to our request for baby and children’s knitted hats to send to MSF’s clinic in Qetta, Pakistan.

Check out our lovely Ravelry group who are busy knitting away, sharing hat patterns and tips.

p/hop supporter Nic has written a beautiful blog post about why she is taking part.

One thousand women a day die during childbirth

MSF have released a new report on the tragic numbers of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth, the majority from preventable and treatable conditions.

You can read more about this and the work MSF are doing to improve obstetric care for women over on the MSF UK website.

Life-saving p/hoppers

Our knitted hats will help babies in one MSF clinic, but the money you donate to MSF also keeps new mums and their babies alive.

p/hoppers, we thank you for you life saving donations.

This story from new mum Laura in Haiti is a great example of the difference we are making to women and their children around the world.

Last week in the MSF office I met Dr Miroslav who had just returned from working in an MSF hospital in Qetta, Pakistan. MSF runs a neonatal unit there and Dr Miroslav told me they need baby hats to keep the premature babies and malnourished kids warm. While this is a very simple thing it really can help save a kids life.

While we don’t usually encourage knits for overseas projects, as local people can usually supply these, thus contributing to the local economy, this is an exception.

So what do we need?

Dr Miroslav has asked for a range of hat sizes starting at head circumference 25cm (I’ve just measured that out with my tape measure, it really is tiny) up to age five years.

I asked him which material he preferred. The hats will be washed before use but he is more concerned about warmth than materials so whatever you have in your stash will be better than nothing, though superwash wool or wool-acrylic blends will probably be most useful.

We have a couple of kids hat patterns with Woolly Wormhead’s fun Stripey Beanie and Liz Lovicks snowflake hat.

These both start at toddler size so if you want to make smaller hats there are lots of free patterns on Ravely.

I asked Dr Miroslav if he needed any other items and he did mention baby socks would be useful but hats are the most important thing at the moment.

So knitters and crocheters, get cracking!

When you have finished your hats please send them to:

p/hop

c/o Clare Storry

MSF UK
67-74 Saffron Hill
London
EC1N 8QX

Thank you very much.