Category Archives: Crochet For Kidneys

Hexagons In Bloom patterns

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, Part 2, Pattern

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Looky what we have here! Colourful hexagons featuring bobly flower centres. It can only be Hexagons In Bloom.

Hexagons In Bloom
Hexagons In Bloom
Hexagon In Bloom (shells)

As promised last week and on Instagram, this post is my pattern for not one, but two types of hexagons specifically designed for our Crochet For Kidneys Part II blankets. They measure 15 cm from side to side and has the white border that you all voted for.

The plan was to only change the shape of my Granny Square In Bloom to a hexagon, but when I started playing with my Vinni’s Colours Nikkim, the creativity bug just took over. I ended up changing the flower (no raised petals), and as you can see, I also made two versions for the body of the hexagons. I honestly couldn’t stop playing. I blame the yarn. I don’t think it’s hand-dyed with dye, it’s dyed with creative juices.

The colours I used for my hexagons are Blue-Red, Red Violet, Cloud, Fern, Lime, Denim, Plum and Violet. It was so much fun going into my shop garage to choose the colours for my hexies. Like a kid in a sweet shop I tell you! (You can click on any of the shade names to go straight to my Etsy shop where you can buy a ball for £3.50.)

If you need any help with rounds 1 to 4, you can have a look at the photo tutorial for Granny Square In Bloom, as the flower instructions are the same up to round 4 (apart from there only being 6 popcorns in the hexagon, but 8 in the square).

I included a few photos that should help you figure out what to do in Round 4 and Round 5.

Hexagon In Bloom – shells

Hexagon In Bloom Shells

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Make a magic ring with colour A.

Round 1: Chain 1, 6 sc in ring, slip stitch in chain. 6 sc.

Round 2: Chain 1, 2 sc in each sc, slip stitch in chain. 12 sc.

Round 3: Chain 3 (count as dc.) *Popcorn stitch, 1 dc* Repeat from * to *. Join with slip stitch in chain. Six popcorns made. Fasten off colour B.

Round 4: Join colour B to any Popcorn stitch. Chain 1, 2 sc in same stitch. *Long sc over dc (crochet hook should be inserted in the sc of round 2) , 2 sc in Popcorn* Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to top of starting chain. 18 sc. Fasten off colour B.

IMG_4494

Round 5: Join colour C to long sc of round 4. Chain 1, 1 sc in long sc,  chain 3, *dc4tog working first 2 legs in first sc and next two legs in next sc, chain 3, sc in long sc, chain 3*. Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to starting chain. Fasten off colour C.

4DCtog collage

Round 6: Join colour D to sc between flower petals. [Chain 3 (count as dc), dc, chain 2, 2 dc (corner shell made)], *chain 1, sc in cluster of round 5, chain 1, corner shell*. Repeat from * to * end. Join with sl st at top of starting chain. See Good To Know.

Round 7: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1 chain) [2 Dc, 2 chain, 2 dc]  in chain 2 space of round 6. Corner shell made. 1 Chain, 3 dc shell in sc, chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 6. Continue working 3 dc shell in each sc and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last sc. 2 dc in last sc. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 8: Chain 3 (count as dc), 2 dc in chain space (3 dc shell made), chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 7. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 9: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1), 3 dc shell in chain 1 space, 1 chain, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 8. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last chain 1 space. 2 Dc in last chain 1 space. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 10 – do not work a hdc in the chain spaces. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

Good To Know: Unlike granny squares, corner shells of granny style hexagons consist of groups of 2 dc, whereas the corner shells of granny squares are groups of 3 dc.

Hexagon In Bloom – solid

Hexagon In Bloom solid

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of Vinni’s Colours Nikkim DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Follow this instructions as for Hexagon In Bloom – shell to Round 6.

Round 7: Chain 3 (count as dc); *dc in next dc, [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in 2 chain space, dc in each of the next two dc, dc in 1 chain space, dc in sc. Continue working dc in each dc and in chain spaces of round 6 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1dc] in each 2 chain space. 9 dc on each side of hexagon.

Round 8 and 9: Work dc in each dc of round 7 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in chain spaces of previous round. Round 8 will have 11 dc on each side of hexagon. Round 9 will have 13 dc on each side of hexagon. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 9. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message or comment on the pattern on Ravelry. If you’re on Ravelry please link to the pattern when you’ve used it because I would love to see how your hexagons look. You can also add your hexagons to the Crochet For Kidneys Part II Ravelry group so that we can all gawk and ooh and aaah about your pretty hexagons.

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Please remember to vote for me in the National UK Blog Awards 2014. You can vote here.

Last two blankets delivered

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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Greetings all. This is just a quick post to say that I’ve just returned from the  dialysis unit of the Royal London Hospital where I dropped off the last two of the seven blankets from Crochet For Kidney Research UK.

My personal favourite is the cotton blanket. It has three smiling Kidney Granny Squares which I love. They’re so unexpected and cheery nestled amongst the sensible, grown-up squares. I do hope the recipient of the cotton blanket feels the same. If not, the flowers and hearts should do the trick.

Cotton blanket collage

Cotton blanket

acrylic blanket collage

Acrylic blanket

I didn’t spend a lot of time in the dialysis unit as I used my lunch hour to drop off the blankets. I’m also going to be honest here and say that being back there reminded me of seeing John so very unwell from the nasty side effects of the pain medication after last year’s transplant.  Walking through the Renal ward again, I was grateful that John and Pieter are both in such excellent health now, but that doesn’t mean I was able to face being back in the hospital. It might sound spineless and uncharitable for not chatting with the people in the dialysis unit, but I just couldn’t.  I would rather pour all my energies, positive thoughts and happy vibes into making the crochet blankets.

I’m now even more inspired and excited about Crochet for Kidneys – Part II. Lots and lots of pretty, bright hexagons for even more dialysis patients! Now that the blankets from Part I are done, I can also begin working on the hexagons for Part II. I just have to finish my Sunset Shades scarf first. Geez, that one is a long time coming. Do you remember? My last post about that beautiful scarf was on 8 October! I have so many plans for that scarf. It’s going to be the cornerstone of More Pretty Things so please excuse me if use a bit of the Christmas and New Year holiday break to finish my scarf first.

Saying that, I can’t expect you all to make hexagons for charity blankets and I do absolutely nothing, so I wrote up a hexagon patterns for you which I will blog soon. It’s only fair, right? And of course, once the scarf is done, I’ll be hexagoning like crazy.

Now that I’m sitting back at my desk in the office, blogging about what I did at lunch time, I do hope that we’ve managed to cheer up two people in the dialysis unit today, even just for a little while. I know a blanket won’t cure their kidney failure, but maybe it can remind them that there are people out there who want them to feel better even though we are strangers.

And I also realise once again that

***we all have so much to be grateful for every day***

Crochet For Kidneys Part II – the hexagons is a go

04 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 2

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♫♪Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-a-Dee-Dee-Ay, Oh what a lovely bunch of people you are!♪♪

I received a great response on my post from Sunday launching Crochet For Kidneys Part II! Most of you who attended the event on 9 November have said that you will take part in Part II and I even have a promise of one whole hexagon blanket from Tammy!

You also voted for your favourite colour for the last round of the hexagons. Our (very clear) winner with 55.88% of the votes is: WHITE. I’m really glad most of you went for white. I was secretly hoping for this result. White will form a lovely frame around our brightly coloured hexagons and it’s a universal colour. You guys have good taste!!!

So here is all you need to know to take part in Crochet for Kidneys Part II – the hexagons.

Crochet for Kidneys the hexagons

If you’re stuck for crochet hexagon patterns, here are a few helpful links:

Ten free hexagon patterns

Lionbrand’s hexagon market bag

Attic 24’s Hexagon (I used Lucy’s pattern to make a scarf – the close-up of which you see in the photo above)

Step by step photo tutorial for making a hexagon

The deadline is 7 February 2014 because John and I plan to go to the Royal London Hospital on the 28th of February to hand over the blankets. We have two months to crochet the hexagons, will get together on the 7th of February somewhere in the Surrey area (details to follow once I’ve decided on a venue) for a 2 hour joining session, and then we have three weeks to finish as many blankets as we can.

Please join our Ravelry group here, Tweet and Instagram using #crochet4kidneys and most importantly get hexagoning people!! Wouldn’t it be great if we can make more than seven blankets this time? Tell your crocheting buddies and spread the word please. You can even use Pinterest to pin the picture in this post.

I seriously can’t wait for the first hexagons to fall through my front door! If you need my address, please use the Contact Me form.

I will start making hexagons as soon as I’ve finished joining the last two of the purple-and-white square blankets from Part I.  I’m going to buckle down and get those to blankets done asap so that it can be delivered to the dialysis unit of the Royal London Hospital before Christmas. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Hexagoning everyone! Brace yourselves – you’re going to see that phrase a lot running up to 7 February!

Crochet for Kidneys Part II

01 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, My ramblings, Part 2

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That’s right peoples, this blogpost heralds the start of Crochet For Kidneys Part II.

Our purple and white blankets were such a huge success – in terms of the numbers of  crocheters who took part and the number of squares I received from you all, but most of all it was a huge success because it lifted the spirits of seven dialysis patients at the Royal London Hospital.  Our blankets meant such a lot to them, doing it all again is a no-brainer. We have to keep going. Agreed?

This time however we’re doing it a bit differently. There won’t be a fund raising aspect – this time it’s all about making blankets. I think we should still get together one day to join up the crochet pieces to form the blankets, but there won’t be a crochet quiz or raffles or talks by John and Pieter – just a bunch of charitable hookers making blankets. The date and the venue of our get together is yet to be decided. For now, I just want to ge the (yarn)ball rolling to get us all crocheting.

So what are we making?

Not squares, we’re making hexagons!!! As with the squares, they should measure 15 cm across and be in acrylic or cotton double knit yarn.

What hexagon pattern should you use? Well, I found a list of the top 10 free crochet hexagon patterns over on the Moogly blog. All we need is right there in one place! Just click here to go straight to the list of hexagon patterns. You may just have to add a few rows of (UK) treble / (US) double crochet to some of the patterns in order to reach 15 cm across.  On this page there’s a step by step photo tutorial to make a basic hexagon which would be perfect for our blankets. Then there’s this Lionbrand hexagon pattern which is 15 cm across, so it’s perfect. Of course you can use any hexagon pattern – the pattern you choose is totally up to you – as long as your hexagon is 15 cm across.

As for the colour, we’re not sticking to purple and white like we did for the squares –  you can make your hexagons any colour, or combination of colours, except for the very last round of your hexagon. If everyone uses the same colour for their last round, we will use that colour to join the hexagons and the overall effect will be uniform and very, very, pretty.

I can’t decide what that last round of colour should be, so I’m putting it to a vote. YOU decide.

Voting will close midnight Tuesday 5 December.

I will recap everything in a follow-up blogpost and also create a new Ravelry group.

If you’re on Twitter or Instagram you can keep on using #crochetforkidneys to share your hexagons with us.

I can’t wait to get started! I can already “see” our brightly coloured hexagon blankets cheering up the dialysis patients!

It was all worth it

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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What a blessed afternoon we had! John is back from his yearly check-up at the Royal London Hospital and has dropped off the five blankets. He took the blankets to the dialysis unit where two of the nurses helped him give the blankets to two of the poorly folk who needed it most. The nurses will give the remaining three blankets, and the other two that I will be sending by post, to the other patients when they are in the dialysis unit again.

John and I are both so happy that the blankets would be used where it is most needed – right there in the very cold dialysis unit of the hospital where John & Pieter’s kidney transplant took place. We were told that blankets couldn’t be given out to people in the dialysis unit of a hospital due to the health & safety issues and hygiene. The plan was that the blankets would go to those who go through dialysis at home, but this way is so much better. The patients who receive our crocheted blankets would keep their blankets at home and only bring it in to the unit when they come for their dialysis sessions. No hygiene or health & safety issues! Yeah!

I am now even more fired up to start Crochet for Kidneys Part 2! Today we saw what a difference those loving made blankets have made, and that’s what counts. In total seven people will receive something useful and tangible that will bring them comfort and hope.

To quote what John wrote on the twoguysonekidney blog:

I had the pleasure of personally handing over two of the blankets to two very happy and amazed people. They were so pleasantly surprised that a complete stranger would come and hand over such a lovely gift to them. And that’s exactly why we decided to do it. We’re all connected, and we’re all a part of God (not apart from God) so what we do for others, we also do for ourselves.

Five blankets for dialysis patients

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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Today is the day people! John is delivering five of the seven blankets to the dialysis unit of the Royal London Hospital. Do you know what today also is? It’s the one year anniversary of the kidney transplant operation that took place at the Royal London Hospital! John will be at the hospital for his post-transplant one year check-up. What better day to hand over blankets of hope to those suffering from kidney failure?!

It was a bit of a rush to get a decent amount of blankets finished, but we did it. Jane, Tammy and Liz  each took a bunch of squares home on the 9th of November and crocheted them together. Thank you so much ladies, you really saved the day!

Please excuse the badly lit photos below. I didn’t get time over the weekend to photograph the photos properly. I rolled and tied up the blankets with purple ribbons last night after dinner and John  set off to the hospital at 9 am, so this is probably the only proper photos we will get off the blankets.

Squares joined by Liz
Squares joined by Tammy
Squares joined by Jane Czaja
Squares joined by Natasja
Squares joined by Natasja

I made these A5 laminate cards for each blanket:

Blanket tag

I felt we needed to give the recipient of the blankets the history behind their blanket. Without the context of who made it, where they live, when it was made and why we made for them, it could just as well be a shop bought Primark blanket. The tag also includes the care instructions.

It feels strange that this project is coming to an end. I still have two blankets to join up which I will post to the Royal London Hospital, but today is the special day that we’ve all been aiming for –  handing over of the blankets to those who need it most. I can’t wait to hear from John how it went. We don’t know how the blankets will be handed out or who decides who gets a blanket and who doesn’t. Hopefully John will be able to take some photos. I will keep you posted, or you can go over to twoguysonekidney.blogspot.co.uk a bit later today to read John’s post about today.

To each and every one of you who made a square, posted it to me, showed up at the village hall on the 9th November and most of all for just being such a great buns of people

THANK YOU SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH

I’d also like to take the opportunity to tell you that……

we’ll be making more blankets!!! This has been such a brilliant team effort I want to do it again! I have a few things lined up for the next two weeks that will keep me busy, but before Christmas I promise to let you in on my plans. I can tell you that we will be voting, we won’t be doing squares and it will be a good stash busting project.

Oooh, the suspense!

Watch this space hookers!

We’re in the newspaper

19 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, In the press, Part 1

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The Crochet For Kidneys Research UK morning appeared in Friday’s issue of the Surrey Advertiser! Stick with me ladies. I’ll make you famous.

If you click on the picture, it will appear bigger.

Crochet day allows for a good old yarn

Kitty wrote a really lovely article and Jake took the great photos. It was Jake who suggested John and I sit at the table with the Vinni’s Colours cotton yarn, so now you can see how it looks in real life. Speaking of Vinni’s Colours, I have fourteen shades on its way to me from South Africa.  I can’t wait to show it to you and to start playing with it. Can you imagine the colour combination possibilities!? Hours of fun I tell you.