18 Wednesday Dec 2013
Posted in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 2
Tags
Poppy did an absolutely lovely post about Crochet For Kidneys Part II . Thank you so much Poppy! Your hexagons look amazing and I really appreciate the unexpected post about the charity blankets. You’re sooo nice.
18 Wednesday Dec 2013
Posted in My ramblings
Have you ever heard of the National UK Blog Awards? It’s the only Blog Awards recognising “a multitude of industry professional talent across the UK”. It’s a biggy and this blog is nominated in the Arts and Culture category!!!!!
The category includes blogs about photography, music, books, reading, art reviews, film, architecture and crafts. That’s a huge range of topics for one category so competition is stiff. If I counted correctly, it looks like there are 71 blogs entered for this category, but my blog is the only 100% crochet related blog. I’m proudly flying the flag bunting for yarn and crochet hooks.
Wouldn’t it be great if a crochet blog could make it to the finals? The only way for it to do so, is if the public vote for it, so I’m asking very nicely that you please vote for crocheTime. If not for me, do it for your love of crochet.
To vote, go to this link: http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/blog-entries/crochetime/, register with your email address and you’ll then be emailed confirmation of registration (check your spam folder if you don’t receive the email immediately) and then you can vote. In return, you will receive a free Blogging eBook – and I’ll have one more vote. You can also click on the picture below, or to the right of my blog.
I’ve made it really easy for you to vote, and the lovely people at the National UK Blog Awards even give you something for free!
I will be very, very, very grateful if would vote for crocheTime. Pretty please.
17 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1
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
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***
17 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in Terrific Tuesdays
On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.
What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!
From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.
xxxxxx
I’m crazy about this Bougainvillea creeping up the rustic old building in Eze Village, Nice. In South Africa Bougainvillea is very common, but very rarely seen in the UK (waaaay too cold here). When I saw this amazing creeping beauty on holiday in Nice, childhood memories of walking home from school past the deep pink flowers came rushing back. One day I will capture the image in hand-dyed cotton yarn from my shop.
Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.
Natasja
10 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in Terrific Tuesdays
On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.
What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!
From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.
xxxxxx
The photo of the Chapel Bridge over Lake Lucerne, taken by John in June 2010, is the source of this week’s colour palette. I love the combination of strong wood, brightly coloured dainty flowers and reflective water. As always, the hand-dyed cotton yarn is available to purchase for £3.50 per ball in my Etsy shop.
Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.
Natasja
04 Wednesday Dec 2013
Posted in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 2
♫♪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.
If you’re stuck for crochet hexagon patterns, here are a few helpful links:
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!
03 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in Terrific Tuesdays
On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.
What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!
From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.
xxxxxx
The Eiffel Tower photographed at sunset in July of 2008. If there ever was an image that should be captured in a colour palette of yarn (which can be bought here), this is it.
Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.
Natasja
01 Sunday Dec 2013
Posted in Crochet For Kidneys, My ramblings, Part 2
Tags
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!
01 Sunday Dec 2013
Posted in Crochet For Kidneys
This is my friend Tammy’s brand new blog. Tammy joined us on the 9th of November and also took crocheted squares home with her to make a complete blanket. She works for Kidney Research UK . Her first post is a really touching reflection on the Crochet for Kidneys Project. Thank you Tammy.
29 Friday Nov 2013
Posted in Markets, My ramblings
‘Tis the season of christmas crafts and fairs, and I’m on board. I’m selling my fantastic cotton DK yarn at two Christmas fairs in Thames Ditton, less than a week apart!
Come on over to the Thames Ditton Crafters stalls at the Thames Ditton High Street Fair, and to our Christmas Fair in the library to ooh and aaah at the beautiful colours of my cotton yarn, to stroke it, to squeeze it, to hold it up to your cheek, imagine what you can create with it, play with the colour combination or just come and say hi.
Might I just add that I have no white yarn to sell since *cough cough* a lady from Texas bought 33 balls of yarn, including all the white! I am officially out of stock of white. It’s not good to be out of stock, but it’s great to say that someone bought so much of what you sell, that you are. Whoo-hoo!!!
The sale happened on Wednesday evening while John, Pieter, Lizelle and I were celebrating the one year anniversary of the kidney transplant, which was of course also the day John handed out the crocheted blankets. Coincidence? I think not! What goes around, comes around.
I’m sure that everyone who took part in our charity project would have noticed something good happening to them around the time of crocheting the squares or when you were reading about it on the blog and felt happy for those who received the blankets. Did you experience this? Did something good happen to you? I’m sure it did. What you give, is what you get, so if you give good things and good thoughts, you receive good things and blessings. Easy 🙂
crochetime 