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.

Inside Crochet magazine

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

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Inside crochet

Congratulations Rachel for being chosen as Inside Crochet magazine’s favourite blogger for this issue! I’m very happy for you and very grateful for the mention of my Crochet for Kidney Research UK event in the interview! I never expected such great publicity. Thank you so mucy!

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Video, Watch me crochet Wednesdays

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crochet, crochet border, crochet edge, crochet video, iMovie, sharp crochet hook

This is nothing fancy; just a short video of me crocheting whatever I’m working on at the moment. I hope you like it.

In this video you see me using a Sharp Crochet Hook to make a cute border for a washcloth. Jessica Taufner sent me two Sharp Crochet Hook and Pattern Book sets – one for me to use and one to be raffled at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK event. Isn’t she kind?! (By the way, we’re up to eight raffle prizes!) Using the Sharp Crochet Hook was really easy. I’m using Anchor Freccia 6 and switched to a 2.25 mm crochet hook after using the Sharp Crochet Hook for the first row.

If you like what I’m doing in this video, you can buy a Sharp Crochet Hook on the website here. Jessica posts worldwide.

As the video only shows how I use the Sharp Crochet Hook, here’s a photo of the finished washcloth. In the end I didn’t do a fancy border. Just 5 (US) DC shells with slip stitches between each shell. I think less is more when you’re using teal blue and green…

washcloth edge and crochet cotton

Terrific Tuesday

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Terrific Tuesdays

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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

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

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

≈ 3 Comments

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!

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Video, Watch me crochet Wednesdays

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Clover pom-pom maker, iMovie, pom-poms

This is nothing fancy; just a short video of me making a pom-pom. Ooooh. Exciting. Not.

Unlike my usual Watch Me Crochet videos, I’m not crocheting in this video. In stead I’m making pom-poms with my small Clover pom-pom maker that I bought at Loveknitting.com. I’m using the (very) pink pom-poms to decorate the centre of flower brooches I made for Breast Cancer Awareness. I’ll tell you more about the pink flower brooches in a future blog post.