One year after it started, p/hop has grown and grown. We have p/hopped patterns, destashed yarn and even rehomed a spinning wheel and have together raised enough money to keep one fieldworker (Doctor, Nurse or Logistician) in the field for a whole year. We would love to raise enough for another year.

Today is the launch of the last phase of Condition Critical.

Before I go any further, please visit the website for Condition Critical, watch the video and meet Françoise who has great dignity and a strength I cannot begin to imagine.

After you have watched it, please leave a message by clicking on the map, or if you use Twitter, send your message by tweet and spread the word.

Today I am not just asking for your donations, I am donating something myself.

Please have a look at the patterns on this site (in the toolbar at the top) and  download as many you like. These patterns are not free, we ask you to make a donation for them. You decide how much to give.

When you donate on either the Just Giving site or the First Giving site, be sure and leave your email address. MSF won’t use it for anything else, and neither will I…. but all the emails will go into randomised donor list and one person will receive a whole year of The Yarn Yard yarn club, one parcel every month in 2010. Pete and Clare from MSF will do the randomising thing on my behalf.

This is a gift from me to one of you. It’s worth £175 in the UK or Europe and £186 ($280 USD) in the rest of the world.

If you are already in the club and your name is chosen you can give the membership to someone else (or have a double dose) or you could p/hop it yourself at your knitting group or on ravelry –  I just need to know where to send the yarn, so when you donate, remember that email address!

The closing date for this is 15th December 2009. So why not enter today and then go and tell all your knitting friends about it too.

Please come back and visit the blog throughout the week and see who is blogging for us… you may get some surprises!

This is what I wrote on the Just Giving page when I set it up about a year ago.

I like knitting.
Plain “vanilla socks” allow me to switch off for a while, knitting round and round and round as I mull over the events of the day. It is sometimes called “mindless knitting” but I prefer to think of it as recharging my batteries.
And then there is challenging knitting, the stuff which takes me out of my comfort zone. The sort of knitting where if I dare to think about what’s for dinner at the same time as I knit, then there is the guarantee of much tinking or frogging (or both).

I am incredibly fortunate.
I have a home in which to knit.
I have the luxury of being able to switch off occasionally.
I know that there will actually be a dinner.
And I know that the people for whom I knit are safe, and usually just a phone call away.

Please donate.

Thank You.

Natalie.

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Thank you so much Natalie. I’m sure most of the p/hop regulars won’t need introducing to Natalie.

If you’re new here firstly: welcome and thank you for visiting p/hop and secondly: you can follow Natalie’s adventures in yarn and life here.

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