So yesterday, I walk into the MSF fundraising meeting (to talk about p/hop naturally) with my knitting under my arm. I carry my knitting in a scotch tube (Natalie, I know you’ll be proud), Bowmore if you’re interested. It’s great because it’s a perfect fit and the needles don’t break in my bag, a problem I have had twice before. It’s bad because people assume I’m an alcoholic carrying a bottle of scotch everywhere.

I take my seat in between Anne and James from supporter services. These are the lovely peeps who look after MSF supporters – if you’ve phoned the office for any reason, there’s a good chance you’ve spoken to them. I settle down and pop the top of the Bowmore tube. Concentrating not on what I am doing but on the person speaking, I pull the needles from the tube. Slowly the realisation dawns on me that there is no wool on the end of either needle. Words appear in my head that aren’t repeatable on a blog such as this. Luckily they don’t make it out of my mouth and startle Sam who is talking about trends in the proportion of visitors to our site who are using smart phones. I spend the rest of the meeting silently panicking, imagining my scarf self-unwinding every minute I am sitting there.

The meeting ends and I go downstairs, pull out the wool and stare at it. I have no idea what to do. I try to rethread it but the loops are twisted and the yarn ends up coming out somewhere in the middle of the row. I hear frogging noises in my head.

Just at that moment, our lovely reception volunteer Lorna walks past and out of sheer desperation I ask her if she knits. Knits? Of course she does!

Five minutes later she returns, and returns my scarf with not a row dropped. I ask if she has heard of p/hop (she is new here). She hasn’t, so I show her the site and she loves it. And what’s not to love??

So I just want to end this frankly fascinating tale (for those of you who have got this far) by repeating what I’m sure I have said before… that p/hop is a wonderful thing and an inspiration to me. And whether you are here for the first time or are a p/hop veteran, you are part of something very special and should be proud.

Now, back to the knitting, two more donations just came in.

NOTE: Closing date for CVs for the p/hop intern/voluntary position is Thursday (24th Sept)!

So, I am advertising for a new Lou… It’s got to be someone who loves MSF (obviously), thinks p/hop is the coolest project around (who wouldn’t) and has the imagination and organisation to carry p/hop to even greater heights.

Also, it would be great if it was someone who enjoyed writing. Oh yeah, and if they knitted it would be a bonus!

If you know anyone like that who would be willing to give a day a week or so of their time, please give them my details.

There is a full job description available on the MSF website, although it is a little vague as p/hop tends to throw the unexpected at us. Please feel free to send it to whoever might be interested…..

Thanks

Pete