Fish and Chip Babies

Most days I find the necessary 9-5 gets in the way of the fun things in life. At the moment though we are spending an inordinate amount of time discussing casting on and 2x2 rib. It's marvelous. The reason for this is one of the work fund raising/community initiatives this year is to knit jumpers and hats for babies in Africa for the  "Fish and Chip Babies" scheme. You can find more about it and the pattern here, but is essentially knitting clothes for new born babies in Africa who's mothers are so poor that the babies come out of hospital wrapped in newspaper, hence fish and chip babies. When this was announced, my first thought was how we all take for granted that our newborn babies have everything they need and a lot of things they don't, and that it seems inconceivable that there are babies being born in the world that don't even have anything to keep them warm. My second thought was a much more banal "Oh no, I've packed all my knitting needles". I had intended that crochet would keep me sane over the next few months until I could unpack my sewing room, so I was knitting needle-less. Then, I had a light bulb moment. I was pretty sure I hadn't packed my Nana's needles and after a bit of rummaging in a partially packed box I found them. Hoorah! They are not really my cup of tea because they are mostly plastic needles - they were the new invention 30-40 odd years ago, and my Nana loved them. I much prefer bamboo needles both for crochet and knitting. Anyway, I was able to find 7 and half (!) pairs of 4mm needles (or old size 8), and a few balls of colourful acrylic yarn - of course there is never a shortage of left over yarn at my house even in these desperate packing times. So, I printed off a several patterns and persuaded 5 colleagues to have a go. Most had not knitted since being at school, but I cast on and gave a few quick reminder session and they were off.......this is how far we got last week, except for Maria who hadn't brought her's in. Mine is the bumble bee effort - it will make my son smile because he is a Hull City supporter and they are the Tigers, which is pretty much the reason for me having these colours in my knitting wool box.

The funny thing about my knitting wool box is that it is actually a leather foot stool. It's huge and it went this weekend to our temporary accommodation which is a little flat above some shops. Anyway, the footstool is really quite heavy and awkward to carry and I was saying "It's only got a bit of wool in it, and a couple of magazines........." until it was dropped after a bit of a struggle at the bottom of the stairs and I was rumbled. It's got lot's of wool in it, about 10 magazines and a few books. Oops.