Susie Morgan of the About Thames Ditton magazine interviewed John and I about yarnbombing and kidneys. It’s a crazy combination of topics I know, but that’s what makes us tick. I approached Susie to ask her to say something on the Facebook page of About Thames Ditton about the Crochet Event of 9 November. She then suggested an interview in stead! I couldn’t believe my luck! About Thames Ditton is delivered to 5,700 homes which is a much bigger reach than their Facebook page. Without this interview there’s no way that I could have reached even half this amount of people. John and I used the opportunity to say a bit about my yarnbombing, promote the event of 9 November and John talked a about his kidney donation experience.  Thank you so much Susie for the opportunity!

You can read the interview by clicking on the photo below. It will open as a PDF document. You can also go the About Thames Ditton homepage to read the whole magazine in electronic format.

In less than a month it will be the Crochet for Kidney Research UK day! (In precisely 29 days, 23 hours and 24 minutes. Not that I’m counting or anything.) It’s been busy couple of weeks for me. I’ve been:

• doing a lot blogging and tweeting about this event,
• trying to get people to attend,
• trying to get people to send crocheted squares,
• finding sponsors for raffle prizes and quiz prizes (On top of the yarn by The Crochet Chain, books by Cico Books and quiz prizes by Black Sheep Wools, Stylecraft Yarn has donated two packs of yarn!! More info to follow soon.)
• thinking of the table decorations*,
• wondering if I should ask a local bakery to bake vanilla cupcakes with purple icing,
• chatting with Jane about her hour-long demonstration,
• distributing flyers in the Thames Ditton area. I put one up at the train station, Jane put one up at Creative Quilting and Jenny of Thames Ditton Crafters have the rest of the flyers with her. She will hand them out during Saturday’s craft sale in the Thames Ditton library. Jenny also has 4 balls of white and 4 of each shade of purple Vinni’s Colours hand painted cotton yarn which she will sell on my behalf at the Craft Sale.**  Just like in my Etsy shop, 25p from each ball sold goes to Kidney Research UK. Jenny, if you’re reading this thanks again for all your help!
• getting someone to design a smiling Kidney Granny Square pattern,
• thinking up questions for the crochet quiz,
• trying to work out how many raffle ticket books I need,
• keeping the Ravelry group updated.

All of this without knowing how many people will be attending and kinda forgetting that I will need to interact with everyone and “host” the event. For real! It’s not just words on paper or a to do list, it’s really going to happen! 9 November I will wake up and know “this is the day that all the list making has been for”.  It’s a bit scary, but my mind is (thankfully) not allowing me to get too caught up in the big picture. Brain is breaking everything down into manageable task which is much kinder on the stress levels. Thank you Brain, you’re ace! That, or you’re just blissfully ignorant about the event.

If anyone from Thames Ditton area is reading this, it would be really great if you could use this form to tell me that you will be there. You don’t need to know how to crochet, or indeed do any crocheting at all. If you bring your “entry fee” of something baked, you can buy a slice of someone else’s something baked, buy tea or coffee, buy raffle tickets, try your luck in the crochet quiz, and listen to John and Pieter talk.

**I can’t attend the Craft Sale in person as John and I will be in sunny Spain! *I’m taking purple and white yarn with me to make table decorations, and pink yarn that Stylecraft Yarn sent me, to make things for Breast Cancer Awareness.