Your purple and white squares

18 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 1

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It’s been a week since Crochet for Kidney Research UK took place (read about it here), yet I’m still receiving crocheted squares for the blankets. You lot are the greatest! I’m not “officially” accepting any more squares but these three ladies either posted their squares before 9 November, couldn’t attend the event in person or just desperately wanted to be involved.

I met Maureen a couple of months ago at one of my crochet demos at Tudor Williams. She asked me to explain working in the round, and now look at her: ten beautifully made granny squares with perfect tension, neat and lovely colour combinations.

Rochsane found out about the chairty blankets through Haekelmonster’s blog. John immediately fell in love with the white spiral square – please give me the name of that pattern Rochsane! Rochsane also wrote the most beautiful note. John and I both had chills when we read it.

Gill dropped off her pretty squares at my house on Friday. She works on the admin side for the Renal & Transplant Unit at Imperial NHS Trust. To quote her email: “….so I am only too well aware of what goes on and the need to make patients’ time with us more comfortable and fulfilling.” Having someone who works with renal patients every day, confirm exactely why I took on this charity project really means a lot to me and Gill’s email popped into my inbox when I needed it most.

I’m definitely going to incorporate these 24 squares into the blankets. In fact, I think some of them may already be part of Blanket No. 2. Yes, two….. Last night I finished crocheting the edging on Blanket No. 1 and laid out the squares for Blanket No. 2. Whoo-hoo!

I’ve been keeping track of the dates, names, places and numbers involved in Crochet for Kidney Research. There’s some impressive numbers! I’ll be using all of that information to make tags for the blankets. I have to make tags anyway to give the care instructions, so I might as well use the opportunity to tell the recipient of a bit more about each blanket. Right?

I will keep you all updated as to the when, where and how of handing over the seven blankets.

Read all about our day of crochet for Kidney Research UK

10 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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charity, crochet, crochet4kidneys, kidney research UK, Kidney Research UK event

Crochet for Kidney Research UK has come and gone. It feels surreal that the blogging about the event since September, the tweeting, newspaper articles, photographing hundreds of your lovingly made crocheted squares, shopping for coffee, tea, milk and anything purple, planning, decorating the Vera Fletcher Hall, writing speeches and so much more, was for a 3 hour event on a Saturday afternoon. But you know what, it was all worth it!

I think the day was a success. There were a few empty tables, but so what. Those that were there helped to make blankets for dialysis patients, we made new friends, we crocheted, we learned more about the work that Kidney Research UK does and by buying raffle tickets, hot drinks and cakes, we raised £254.10. But that’s not all. The law firm where I’m a PA, will give £250 for the charity if an employee raises at least £250, so that means I will be sending £504.10 to Kidney Research UK! (We JUST made the £250 minimum, so whoever spent £4.10 on cake and coffee – God bless you!).

You know what got me the most exited about yesterday?: seeing all the crocheters together and knowing that you all have such good hearts and compassion for others. I know I’m supposed to say that it’s good to have raised the money, but for me, it’s more about being able to give – at the last count – 7 blankets to 7 people on dialysis and showing them that there are people out there who care about them. Care enough to have gone through the trouble of finding a pattern, buying yarn and taken the time to crochet them a blanket. That’s what it’s all about for me.

Here’s how the day went:

I did my welcome speech,

followed by Jan Czaja who demonstrated the slip stitch method for crocheting squares together. John connected our camcorder to the projector so that Jane would be displayed nice and big for all to see.

Jane did a great job of showing us the method and explaining what to do when you have to join two donated squares made by two different people, using different yarn, with different tension and different patterns. The answer: wiggle your squares. Thanks again Jane for being there and doing such a great job.

After Jane’s demonstration I introduced John and Pieter and they then shared their stories with everyone. It was very touching to hear their emotional stories. (If you want to read their story, visit twoguysonekidney.blogspot.com)

Now that everyone knew why we wanted to raise awareness and money for Kidney Research UK, it was time to start crocheting. My favourite part of the whole day.

Ian, Liz, Mary, Brenda and Lesley

Ian, Liz, Mary, Brenda and Lesley

Tammy, me and Cecilia

Jane, Alissa and Sara with her beautiful daughter

As you can see we were all hard at work and there were so many squares! I will do a separate blog post about the squares and the lovely ladies who offered to take squares home to make up the blankets.

While we were crocheting, Pieter and John sold the raffle tickets.

By this time it was around 12:45, which meant time to do the crochet quiz and draw the raffle prize winners. I tried to read out the quiz questions, but my voice just wasn’t loud enough, so John took over. He was a great quiz master. Congratulations to team Crochet Queens – Tammy, Cecilia, Dave (Cecilia’s carer and husband) and Jane – who got 10 out of the 12 questions correct and won the Sublime Baby Cotton Kapok yarn and gift vouchers from Black Sheep Wools. I hope you all enjoy using the super soft yarn and spending your gift vouchers! Dave very kindly gave his wooly winnings and gift vouchers to Cecilia. Nice guy, that Dave.

The raffle prizes were drawn by John, Pieter, Jane and myself. Handing out the prizes was the second best part of the day for me. I loved seeing the winners faces!

The prizes were sponsored by Jane Czaja who donated a crocheted basket and a place in one of her crochet workshops, I gave one of my crochet clocks, Stylecraft Yarns gave two prizes, The Crochet Chain from Waltham Abbey in Essex gave, amongst other things, three balls of Noro yarn, three books, three bamboo crochet needles and loads more yarn (!), two books were donated by Cico Books and a Sharp Crochet Hook. Thank you to each and every one of you for being so generous, it really means a lot to us. We also received a last minute raffle prize donation from Loveknitting.com. I was so surprised when Helen arrived at 10:30 with the bag of three balls of purple yarn – thank you so much Loveknitting.com! That last minute prize was won by Cecilia.

Throughout the day an old school friend of mine, Helena, and Pieter’s lovely wife Lizelle, sold hot drinks and the cakes that everyone had brought. They did an amazing job and I was really glad they were there to help out.

Lizelle and Helena

I would like to mention that Nice Buns Bakery from 48 High Street Thames Ditton, donated a dozen cupcakes for us. Not only did they do it for free, they delivered it to us at the Vera Fletcher Hall and even said that if we ran out of coffee, tea etc. to just call the shop and they’ll bring us more. Aren’t they lovely?! Their blueberry and lavender cupcakes were really something special – so special that I didn’t even get a chance to take a proper photo.

I would also like to thank Tammy, who works for Kidney Research UK, who drove all the way from Peterborough to attend our event and brought with her pamphlets and Kidney Research UK merchandise. Tammy has been a great help and support to me.

Thank you to each and every one of you who sent me a square and to those of you who travelled all the way to Thames Ditton yesterday to attend the event. It means so, so, so, much to John and I.

In case you’re wondering, yes, there will be more of these type of crochet events. I learned what worked and what didn’t, so the next one will be bigger and better.

For now, I’m going to take a break from organising crochet events and finish all the blankets so that we can give them to the dialysis patients before Christmas. I’m really excited about this part of the project – can’t wait to start arranging the squares, crocheting the borders and then giving those blankets away! You can expect a lot of purple and white blanket photographs in the coming weeks 🙂

Your purple and white squares

08 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 1

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Kidney Research UK event

Its the day before the big event and another three parcels of squares arrived. Between these three I received enough for another blanket! Can you believe it? Three strangers from England, Scotland and Berlin basically crocheted a blanket! I can’t tell you how touching that is for me. Crocheters simply are the best.

Rita said sorry for “only” sending four squares as she ran out of time. Rita, without your four squares we wouldn’t have had enough for another blanket. Each square counts, so thank you very much.

These eight squares sent by Linda, they are the first crocheted squares she has ever made. As in, ever! She only learned to crochet on 9 October. I was amazed that she would say in her note to me, that she didn’t like the look of them. What!? Even for an expert crocheter, these are great. Well done Linda. I am proud to include these in the blankets.

Carina, who blogs over on haekelmonster, sent me a box of 34 squares from Berlin, Germany! Carina was afraid they wouldn’t arrive in time, but they did and each square is so perfectly made. Thank you so much Carina!

While I was typing this post FedEx rang the doorbell with this delivery. 68 Squares sent by Jennifer Lewis and Carol Cicotelli from the USA. I was so excited I didn’t even photograph the squares on a white background. I’m totally blown away by their generosity. 68 Squares are almost one and a half blanket, and they took the trouble to send it by courier so that it would arrive in time. I honestly have no words.

The total square count is now 50 cotton squares and 232 acrylic squares making the grand total 282 squares! And that’s without the squares from the people who will be attending tomorrow’s event! We will definitely be able to give six people a blanket each, maybe even seven. Wow, wow, wow.

I am now officially more excited than nervous about tomorrow 🙂

Your purple and white squares

02 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 1

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Kidney Research UK event

I received a second batch of crochet squares from Nicky Sutton yesterday. Thanks so much Nicky!

This brings our total up to 152, with two more packets on it’s way from ladies in Germany. You guys are really the best!

I can’t believe that next week this time I’ll be doing my “thank you for coming” speech in the Vera Fletcher Hall. It’s crazy to think that it will all be over next week, but between you and me, I already think I want to do this all again next year…. 🙂

Crochet for Kidney Research UK – an update

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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charity, crochet, crochet event, crochet4kidneys, kidney research UK

It’s the first of November. Can you believe it? It’s crazy how quickly time goes by. 53 Days to Christmas and, more importantly, eight days to the crochet event I’m arranging *she says swallowing ~~two~~ three Kalms tablets*

With eight days to go, I think I actually have done everything I can:

The Vera Fletcher Hall deposit is paid and I had a chance to have a look around earlier this week. It’s a great space.
Wednesday evening John and I bought instant coffee, tea, sugar, milk and instant hot chocolate, purple paper cups, napkins and plastic teaspoons
We have purple washi tape (you always need washi tape!)
We have purple place cards for the Master Bakers/Buyers to write on the prices of their baked goods
I made six purple and white mandalas for the tables and have 10 vases and 10 purple artificial daisies
John and Pieter’s speeches are written
My speeches are written
Lizelle (Pieter’s wife) and Helmien (an old school friend) have been appointed as baristas
John and Pieter are in charge of the audio visual equipment
Jane Czaya is demonstrating how to crochet squares together
I received six of the eight raffle prizes
The crochet quiz prizes, supplied by Black Sheep Wools, are wrapped
I thought up the 12 crochet questions and one tie breaker for crochet quiz
The answer sheets for the quiz are made
Kidney Research UK has sent me a fundraising pack with cool things
NHS Organ Donation has sent me pamphlets
We have a programme and timetable
About Thames Ditton magazine and the Thames Ditton Residence Association have been tweeting about the event, raising interest in the local area
My contribution to the baked goods will be baked and donated (!) by Nice Buns Bakery in Thames Ditton High Street
I received 144 squares so far, which is enough for three blankets
One and Two Company designed a Kidney Granny Square pattern especially for this charity project! Find the pattern here.
There’s a Ravelry group here
We even have our own hashtag for Twitter: #crochet4kidneys

Please come to our event and see what all the fuss is about. John, Pieter, Lizelle and I really hope to see you there! If you decide to come, please use the Registration form here, to tell us you’ll be there. It would be GREAT to know how many people to expect.

Crochet mandalas ta-daaaah

28 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, Ta-daah!

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crochet

Mandalas, modern doilies, large coasters, call them what you like. They are all the rage right now and I’ve hopped onto that bandwagon. I’ve actually been on the wagon since September when I made the “vintage-style vase coaster” from Nicki Trench’s book which I reviewed here. I really enjoyed working in the round, making each round a different stitch and different colour. I love mixing things up, so these kind of patterns are right up my street. When I made that purple and white vase coaster I knew it was going to be used as a centrepiece on the tables at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK day on the 9th of November. Now I just needed to make five more so that I had one for each of the six tables.

Out of the blue I remembered seeing mandalas in Simply Crochet magazines. They were designed by Marinke a.k.a. Winkieflash, which I follow on Twitter and Instagram. Her mandalas would be perfect for my tables! I had to flick through all my copies of Simply Crochet magazine to find the two patterns. It was a task I thoroughly enjoyed – there are so many things I still want to crochet! *Note to self: page through your crochet books and magazines more often* Lots of post-it notes and folded page corners later, I eventually found Marinke’s mandala patterns in issues 5 and 7. I made copies of the patterns and took it, my purple and white yarn and 4 mm crochet hook with me on holiday.

Aaah, what bliss to be crocheting on holiday. Between going to the beach, afternoon naps, discovering narrow streets and feasting at seaside cafes, it took me two days to crochet the mandalas. You’ve already seen the video of me sitting on the balcony, weaving in the ends. If you missed it, click here to go to the YouTube video.

I couldn’t resist hanging my mandalas on the washing line in front of our holiday flat. I don’t think anyone from the street noticed them, but I certainly couldn’t stop looking.

Now for the nitty-gritty of the mandalas.

Yarn: A mix of mostly Vinni’s Colours Nikkim and some Stylecraft Cotton Classique and Rowan Handknit cotton

Hook: 4 mm

Pattern: Summer Hearts from issue 5 and Picots and Petals from issue 7 of Simply Crochet magazine. Marinke blogged about her patterns here. She designed six mandalas for Simply Crochet magazine, so there are more to come. Yeah!

Modifications made: I had to modify them all. Not because I didn’t like the pattern, but because I had to make the mandalas bigger so that they would be roughly the same size as the vintage-style vase coaster and in proportion with a 6 to 8 seat table.

Summer Hearts 1 – I followed the pattern exactely to the end, and then repeated rows 5 and 6 and did a final row of (UK) DC with a long DC between the fans:

Summer Hearts 2 – I did rows 5 and 6 twice, left out row 11 (which is worked at the back of row 10) and then did the shells from row 6 again, finishing off with a final (UK) DC row:

Picots and Petals 1 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictots and Petals 2 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictors and Petals 3 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles@

And here they all are for the group shot. Pretty aren’t they?

When you see these babies again, they will be in the centre of the tables in the Vera Fletcher Hall underneath a glass vase with purple flower.

Your purple and white squares

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 1

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Kidney Research UK event

Another four packets of squares for the blankets for the Crochet For Kidney Research UK event arrived this week. These four packages contained 43 squares – that’s just five short of one whole blanket made up of 8 rows of 6 squares! That’s fantastic!

A huge shout-out to Cathy who sent 24 squares all the way from the USA. I don’t know why, but whenever I receive squares from as far afield as the USA it really touches my heart. Speaking of hearts. Those purple hearts on the white squares were sewed on my hand! Can anyone say “fiddly job”? Thanks again Cathy, your hard work is very much appreciated.

I also have to mention Jacky who has sent a second batch of squares. Jacky = twice as nice.

The total square count is now 144 – that’s exactly three blankets. Last week I was still hoping for three, and now we’ve done it!! Your kindness and generosity is amazing to me.

I read all the notes and postcards that I receive with the squares. Everyone’s kind words and support means the world to me – especially now that we have less than two weeks to go to The Event (!) Thank you.

Pink brooches for Breast Cancer Awareness

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, My ramblings

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In my last post I shared with you the generosity of Stylecraft Yarns, who asked me to make something for Breast Cancer Awareness using the Stylecraft Special DK they sent me. At first I wasn’t sure what to make until…. I started paging through old issues of Simply Crochet magazine. Soooo much inspiration in those magazines. In issue 5 I came across a super quick and easy flower brooch pattern. Absolutely perfect for Breast Cancer Awareness.

For my readers outside of the UK, I just quickly have to explain that here October is All About Pink and raising awareness about breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Care is a charity that does a great job supporting and advising women about breast cancer.

When breast cancer and its treatment overshadow everything, we see the woman underneath. Breast Cancer Care is the only UK-wide charity dedicated to providing emotional and practical support for anyone affected by breast cancer. We campaign for better support and care and promote the importance of early detection, involving people with breast cancer in all that we do.

Last year… 1.5 million people sought information or support from our website, 950,000 copies of our expert publications were ordered or downloaded, we answered more than 12,000 calls to our Helpline and more than 1,500 Ask the Nurse email queries, we reached 3,375 people with our breast awareness talks, over 7,000 people used our face-to-face or other specialist services

Breast Cancer Care also thought up Pink Fridays. It’s a brilliant idea. Stylecraft Yarns are holding their Pink Friday today, so it’s only right that I share my “something creative” with you today.

The nitty-gritty of my Breast Cancer Awareness brooches:

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Fiesta and Clematis
Hook: 6 mm for the back petals, 4 mm for the front petals
Pattern: Blooming Brooch designed by Cara Medus which appeared in Simply Crochet magazine issue 5
Modifications: For the centre and back petals I used both strand of pink together – that’s what the 6 mm crochet hook was for. When I did the front petals I did them in the same way as the back petals, but make 4 chains between each (UK) DC, instead of 3.
Embellishments: a pom-pom in the centre of three of the six brooches. You can see a video of me using the Clover pom-pom maker in this post.

Here they are – six pink flower brooches for Breast Cancer Awareness. As you can see, I’m wearing the cowl made with Stylecraft Espresso yarn that I won. I love it!

John has taken these brooches to work so that it can be sold the ladies in his office for their Pink Friday next week.

Stylecraft Yarns won and to be won

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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Loveknitting, yarn

The title of this post sounds like a Chines take-away doesn’t it? “Chow mein and wonandtobewon please. No chopsticks, I need a fork” Hahaha

Moving on….

I won Stylecraft Espresso yarn in a giveaway through Twitter. Yeah! Free yarn! Stylecraft tweeted that the next person to like their Facebook page, would win five balls of Espresso yarn. My timing was perfect and the Gods of Crochet were on my side again: I won! When they tweeted my name as the winner and asked that I get in contact, I told them that I would not keep the winnings for myself, but rather give it away as a raffle prize at the Kidney Research UK event on 9 November. Paying it forward, sharing the yarn loving and all that 😉

Espresso yarn

But wait, there’s more. When Stylecraft heard that I will be giving away my winnings they said they would send me a little something extra for the event!

What they sent was Stylecraft Special DK in pinks, oranges and white. You know I’m not a huge fan of pink, but the combination of pink and orange really does look scrummy *quoting Mary Berry*. Stylecraft asked that I “be creative” and use the yarn to create something for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I kept half of the yarn for that (I will show you what I made for Breast Cancer Awareness in a follow-up blogpost) and the other half is a second prize for the raffle. Score!!

Thank you Stylecraft for being so generous. I’ve always loved using Stylecraft yarns – my Identity Crisis blanket was made using only Stylecraft Special DK, and their Cotton Classique is a brilliant DK cotton at a very good price. Now that I know how generous the Stylecraft Yarns people are, I’m an even bigger fan.

If you want to get your hooks into these prizes, you would have to buy a £1 raffle ticket at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK event in Thames Ditton on the 9th of November. 15 Days to go to the big day!!!

If you can’t come to Thames Ditton, Loveknitting.com sells a huge selection of Stylecraft yarns here and until midnight 27 October they are giving 10% discount on all DK yarns if you use the code DOUBLEORKNITS. And remember, if you put in my name (Natasja King) in the “Referred By A Friend” box at checkout, you will get 15% off on your first order at Loveknitting.com!

Your purple and white squares

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 1

≈ 3 Comments

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Kidney Research UK event

While I was on holiday last week, four more packets of squares for the blankets for the Crochet For Kidney Research UK event arrived! These four packaged contained 48 squares – that’s enough for one blanket made up of 8 rows of 6 squares! Ladies, between the four of you, you’ve crocheted a whole blanket! Whoo-hoo!!!!

A huge shout-out to Helen who single-handedly crocheted 30 squares. That’s two-thirds of the blanket. You’re a rockstar Helen.

Jane Czaya also tweeted me a picture of squares made by her crochet students. Jane has even been selling raffle tickets to the ladies of her crochet group in Lewes who cannot be at our event on the 9th of November. How great is that?!

I’ve received a total of 99 squares, so that’s enough for two blankets without counting Jane’s crochet student’s squares or the squares of those coming in person. I’m soooo happy! Thank you to everyone who has sent squares so far.

We still have 20 days to go. Maybe we can have three blankets by then? Wouldn’t that be amazing?