…you will see our new video made by Ghadas who is a nurse working for MSF in Nigeria who is also a fan of the fibre arts.

Once you’ve watched Hadas’s video scroll down and check our current out UK total. Not bad eh? I was hoping we’d reach our £23,000 target in time for the Just Giving Awards but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. I suspect this has something to do with a knitterly meet up in York last weekend (more on that coming soon!).

I took a moment to gaze at the percentage total at 101%, but like MSF we don’t sit still for long (unless knitting or crocheting of course) so I’ve upped the target to £25,000.

When you watch Hadas’s video you may notice a slight irregularity, though looking the the granny squares in the video brings me on to what’s happening in our Ravelry group. Every year the group comes together making blankets for the festivals we attend. Currently there are four, yes four, on the go covering 3 weights of yarn and two crafts. If you like knitting or crocheting please feel free to join in. The main blanket thread is here which has links to the four projects at the top of the page.

I wonder how much p/hop will have raised by the end of 2011, sending more brilliant and committed people like Hadas into the field. Nice work knitters and crocheters.

Like all the best teams we’re off to the finals at the Emirates Stadium, no, not for a footie final but the finals of the Just Giving awards. You may remember we were shortlisted in the Most Creative Fundraiser category in the 2011 awards, which was thrilling enough, but to make it to the final three is very, very exciting and also a great honour.

The awards are on Thursday 10th of February at the Emirates Stadium. Pete is giddy at the thought of Emirates as he’s a huge Arsenal fan and Natalie and I are both excited yet wondering what to wear as we don’t go to smart events all that often. I may well wrap myself up in the p/hop samples. I’m going to try to find a way of tweeting at the event so I can keep our lovely supporters, i.e. YOU, involved.

Our Ravelry group has produced some wonderful reasons why they think p/hop is special on hearing the award news. Here are a few of them:

Ros said ” I was just looking at the other nominees in the JustGiving awards and it made me realise the thing I like most about p/hop: I get the pleasure and so I give in response whereas so many fund-raisers are about sponsoring other people to do fun or interesting things.”

Jael said “p/hop is also very inclusive (if you like yarn) – by its very nature it can potentially involve so many more people.”

Purletta said “The other good thing about p/hop is that not only do we get pleasure from doing the knitting but often we also give pleasure to other people by making gifts of the knitted object. For example, loads of the Cranford mitts were knitted for other people. It seems so much more productive than going on a sponsored walk or something like that.”

We also went on to discuss how many fundraisers involve exercise and therefore sweating which resulted in Probably Jane coining the following p/hop slogan:

p/hop, the less sweaty way to give.

Pete might dispute the sweaty nature of knitting. Will he finish that scarf in time for the award ceremony?

Happy New Year Everyone. Before we launch headlong into 2011 I’m going to take a few moments to look back over 2010. What a year it was, we were here there and everywhere meeting hundreds, if not thousands of friendly and generous knitter, but you know all that (well you do if you read the blog). One of the things I love about p/hop is when people are inspired to make a difference and raise money which will enable MSF to provide vaccines, midwives, nutrition and other life saving care to people who desperately need it.

Take for example IsobelM who asked for a collecting tin and some info on p/hop and MSF to add to a display on knitting in her local library in the Isle of Man.  Or Shelia who always makes a donation through Just Giving whenever there is a birthday in the family, remembering those who have very little in life at times of personal celebration. Or Rhoda who knitted tea cosies to sell for MSF at a local craft cafe and gallery. Or the anonymous knitter who donates for a pattern.  Or Rooknits and Picperfic who coordinated the 2010 raffle blankets and all the individuals who donated their knitting time to make squares to create beautiful throws. All these acts of kindness make a huge difference.

Jacqui, modelling her Flowers in the Rain design at Woolfest in July

You’ve helped Dr Ekdahl deliver two healthy babies to Haseena and Jamila in flood striken Pakistan.You’ve helped prevent, control and treat cholera outbreaks in Haiti. You’ve helped vaccinate thousands of vulnerable people in Niger against meningitis. You’ve helped raise nearly £22,000, over US$4000 and 1,500 Euro for MSF since p/hop started.

Good eh? If you helped p/hop raise money for MSF, in any way, no matter how small, in 2010 give yourself a pat on the back, a nice cup of tea,some knitting time, and start thinking about what we can do in 2011.

Photo from MSF UK

Thank you.

Added at 10pm: After I wrote this the UK fund raising total went over £22,000! What a brilliant start to 2011. Don’t forget you can also donate in US dollars, Euros or make a donation in your local currency to your country’s MSF office.

Like any knitter, I’m often being asked who taught me to knit and how old was I when I learnt and what was my first garment knitted and so on. So I thought I’d have a bit of fun and share some photos of me as a nipper sporting some of my mum’s handknits!

I’m not sure how old I am here, but I was young. If you ask Aran who’s in this photo, he’ll tell you it’s him. Actually, nearly all of my baby photos are Aran, apparently..

Variegated yarns are not a new invention… and whatever happened to Rocket ice lollies?

You got it… I’m a child of the Seventies! And now it’s my brother looking like his nephew.

OK, there’s no real woollyness in this shot but it’s worth sharing for it’s cuteness, no?

And to answer some more of those questions? Yep, my mum taught me to knit when I was 3, and my first garment for myself was a jumper that I made aged 9. The woolly genes were passed on, and I’m rather pleased about that.

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Thank you for blogging with us Woolly.

Woolly designed the wonderful Stripey Beanie especially for p/hop last year. It’s a great pattern in toddler to adult sizes and you can also play spot the difference between young Woolly and Aran. You can read more from Woollywormhead and see her fab patterns here.

The blog-a-long has now finished but you can read all the guest blog posts here.

Don’t get you can follow us on twitter @msf_phop and join in the fun in our friendly Ravelry group.

The air is getting colder, the mornings crisper and the evenings are drawing in. All a sure sign that Christmas is getting close. My children have written their Christmas lists; the nine year old has been quite frugal this year, only requesting six gifts and all at very reasonable prices. My six year old, not yet having learned the words ‘modest’, ‘frugal’ or ‘reasonable’ has a list three pages long, and appears to be a word for word copy of a toy catalogue which hit our doormat last week. And so the fun begins!

As a crafter, Christmas has probably been in my thoughts for a little longer than those of other people. I had completed at least two of my main presents before the kids went back to school in September, although I seem to have become complacent, resting on my laurels after this early start and now I’m wondering how I’ll manage to get everything done in time. I think that maybe many of my outstanding gifts will be foodie ones; I have some mint liqueur and orange brandy maturing in the kitchen, as well as a lovely recipe for onion marmalade which I’m quite sure will go down very well with the in-laws. Add in a couple of boxes of chocolate truffles and everyone will be happy.

Of course, Christmas music is playing in all the shops, and the decorations are getting more and more plentiful. On November 10th, together with my husband and children, I headed into Cardiff to see the Christmas lights being switched on. Doctor Who and his companions would be doing the honours, so my two fanboy children were very eager to go and stand in the cold for an hour to see them. We turned up reasonably ahead of time, but were still later than many hundreds of people who had obviously decided to brave the cold for far longer! Although, with so many people there, and packed in tightly together, it wasn’t actually that cold. We pushed and wriggled our way towards the front, to try to get a good view of the stage. We got within about fifty feet when we had to give up and make the best of where we were. Cardiff Council had erected two giant screens so that those of us a fair way from the stage still had half a chance of seeing anything. However, I am only 5′3″ tall, and my husband is a scant couple of inches taller than that so we really didn’t stand much of a chance.

Undeterred, we hoisted the boys on our shoulders (have you tried carrying nine and six year olds for any length of time? Who needs to go to the gym for weight work?) who then had a wonderful view of everything which was happening. Unfortunately, my six year old isn’t so hot with the camera, so I didn’t get any pictures of the switch-on. But then there was a fireworks display which made up for the poor view and the aching shoulders, so I felt much happier!

I love taking pictures of fireworks; they always look so dramatic. Anyway, once the Christmas lights were switched on, the event was over and the crowd dispersed. On the way back to the car park, I captured a couple of photos of Cardiff’s Christmas decorations;

They’ve gone for a blue theme again this year. It looks very lovely, but always makes me feel even colder! I’m looking forward to when they go back to red and green and gold. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to decorating for Christmas!

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Thank you for blogging with us Jensta79. To read more from Jensta click here.

The blog-a-long officially finished last week but like all the best parties is going on into the small hours. You can read all the guest blogger posts here.

You can help spread the p/hop word by following us on twitter @msf_phop and by joining in the fun in our friendly Ravelry group with yarn swaps, knit-a-longs plus all the latest p/hop news.

I’m always very conscious of the limited time we spend on this earth and I like to make the best use of my time whenever I can. That’s why the Lonely Planet book 132 Seize the Days really appealed to me. We’re always complaining in this country about the lack of bank holidays we get in the UK, but I bet most of us don’t make the best of the time off that we do have every year anyway. This book outlines that in fact there are 132 days in the year that we can please ourselves (comprised of 52 weekends, 8 bank holidays and minimum of 20 days statutory annual paid leave).

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.

I have made a lot of promises involving this scarf. I have broken most of them. No more. By Friday, 5pm, the scarf shall be complete. Or maybe more than complete. That kind of depends on you….. Cheers, Pete x

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

There’s a great four page spread all about p/hop in the latest issue of Yarn Forward magazine (issue 25, June 2010).

Here’s Pete reading all about it!

Hello to any new readers who’ve found us through Yarn Forward. You can keep up-to-date with all the p/hop news here on the blog, via our twitter feed and in the p/hop Ravelry group. Please feel free say hello back to us, we’d love to hear from you.

You may recognise Pete from the article, he’s the one holding* his now infamous scarf for Arsene Wenger.

We’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Yarn Forward team for the feature.

Now back to knitting my scarf for the PHKCOW competition. I’m in the office tomorrow and must beat Pete. My knitting pride is at stake.

*Note that’s Pete holding his scarf, not knitting it

Spring into spring with this gorgeous Chic Spring Beret kindly donated to p/hop by talented designer Jane Crowfoot and the staff at The Knitter magazine.

The beret uses four colours of DK yarn and is a good introduction to Fair Isle (stranded colour) knitting. If you’re new to Fair Isle knitting there are lots of good tutorials on the internet including one on the KnittingHelp.com website (scroll down for the video) or just ask in the p/hop group on Ravelry if you need any advice.

If you want to see what the beret looks like in other colourways take inspiration from what others have made on Ravelry.

To read more about the Chic Spring Beret pattern and download the PDF click here. Happy Knitting!