Your purple and white squares

20 Sunday Oct 2013

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

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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?

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

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

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crochet, crochet video, iMovie

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

The video shows me weaving away the tails of purple and white mandalas that I made whilst on holiday in sunny Spain. Trust me, even weaving away ends is a pleasurable job when you are doing it on the sunny balcony of your holiday flat with the sound of waves breaking in the background.

I will do a full post with all the nitty-gritty of the mandalas later this week.

Terrific Tuesday

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

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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

Greetings from Spain! How gloriously colourful are these houses?!

Sadly it’s our last day here today. I will share more photos later in the week, but now I’m going to have another coffee at a cafe on the beach.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday!

Adios
Natasja

An interview with hubby and I

10 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in In the press, My ramblings

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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.

Terrific Tuesday

08 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings, Terrific Tuesdays

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From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

It’s a colour explosion! This is what our patio table looked like on Sunday afternoon. The sun came out so I rushed outside with a granny square coaster for my coffee, the smiling kidney granny squares (the free pattern is here) and my Sunset Shades chevron scarf. The balls of Vinni’s Colours were rolling all over the paving and I lost my crochet hook a few times through the gaps in the table, but it had to be done – when the sun comes out and the light is this perfect, I do my business al fresco.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

Smiling kidney in a square crochet pattern

07 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet pattern, granny square, kidney research UK

The Crochet for Kidney Research UK event now has it’s very own, unique, especially commissioned granny square featuring a smiling kidney! The pattern was designed by the very talented Carolina Guzman of One and Two Company.

Click on the picture below to view the PDF of the pattern. It’s cute isn’t it?

Back in August 2012 I blogged about hand towels that I embellished with crochet applique. I used a combination of two of One and Two Company’s designs – Cow Pig and Farm and The Tree The Houses and The Cloud. You can see the towels in this post. Knowing what Carolina is capable of, she was my first, and only choice, when I needed someone to design a kidney shape. Carolina didn’t disappoint. Not only did she design a crochet kidney applique shape, she also converted the shape into a granny square. Brilliant! She did all of this whilst submitting work to Design Wars 5, heavily pregnant and for free!

Carolina has 76 crochet patterns, and 86 crochet applique patterns on her website. This lady is a crochet design machine! She designs baskets, security blankets, garlands, rattles, and more. As for the applique – don’t get me started. Each and every one is just so cute damn cute: cars, rockets, reindeer, butterflies, snails on a branch, VW camper, penguins – there are just too many to mention. What I like most about Carolina’s work is her style, which comes through in each and every pattern. You can always spot a One and Two Company design. She has a colourful simplicity to her designs. You know exactly what it is, but it’s paired down and simplified so that it is easy to crochet without too much fuss. Her patterns are a breeze too – it’s written and charted so anyone can follow. I think One and Two Company designs and patterns are absolutely brilliant.

Here are three squares that I whipped up over the weekend. I had a great time playing around with the facial expressions of the kidney. *There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say*. I used this website for instructions on how to embroider the eyes, and this one for the mouth. This tutorial on doing a running stitch on crochet was also helpful. For the middle square I just did plain ole french knots for the eyes, but I think the embroidered eyes look better. What do you think?

Stephanie’s pattern shows three rows of shells, but to get my square to 15cm I added two more rounds. I used Vinni’s Colurs Nikkim in Dark Purple, Lilac, Violet and White.

If you make any Kidney Granny Squares, please share it on Carolina’s Ravelry Group here, and on the Crochet for Kidney Research UK Ravelry event page here.

I’m so excited about our blankets for dialysis patients! What do you think? Do you like the smiling kidneys?

Jane the crochet teacher

03 Thursday Oct 2013

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

≈ 3 Comments

I have another little update on the Crochet for Kidney Research UK event. Not only will you be able to buy raffle tickets, take part in a quiz, listen to talks by a living kidney donor and recipient, drink tea and eat someone else’s cake, but you will also get the opportunity to see Jane Czaja demonstrate how to crochet the donated squares together. (Please note though that Jane will only be there for the first hour ie. 10:30 to 11:30.)

Jane has a considerable amount of crochet experience dating back to childhood, crocheting her own clothes in the 1960/70s and teaching crochet at Adult Education Classes in the 1980s. She has recently moved back to the area having been in Lewes for a couple of years where she was teaching Crochet to Beginners and Improvers.

Jane’s Nice & Easy Workshops are now held at Creative Quilting in Hampton Court Village. Crochet appointments are also available at Jane’s Nice & Easy OneToOne Crochet Surgery (no amputations necessary just help with crochet). Details can be found on www.janescrochet.com and you can follow Jane on twitter @janescrochet.

I mentioned Jane briefly in this post where I shared the blessings and good vibrations I’m experiencing in organising the event. This post is about that very Jane who has donated a place in one of her crochet workshops, and donated a crochet basket like the one below, as raffle prizes. Thank you very much Jane for sharing your expertise and your support!

Are any of my blog readers making purple and white squares? Are any of you planning to attend the event on the 9th of November? I’d love to hear from you!

As for me, I’m working on my chevron scarf at the moment, but I’ll be making purple and white squares (using Vinni’s Colours Nikkim of course) for five days nonstop from next Friday: John and I are going on a short holiday to Spain! What better time for some relaxed purple and white hooky action?! Sun, sea, paella, chorizo and crochet. Can. Not. Wait.

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

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

≈ 4 Comments

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crochet, crochet video, iMovie

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

The video shows me crocheting:

a row in my chevron scarf,
in (US) single crochet / (UK) double crochet and the long stitch version thereof,
with a 3.5 mm crochet hook,
using Vinni’s Colours Nikkim cotton in shade Wine

Terrific Tuesday

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 5 Comments

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

Photo by Nest Pretty Things.

This pretty living room scene with the fireplace, comfy couch and hexagon crochet throw is what I’m craving today *she says with a runny nose, reaching for the cough syrup*

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

Vinni’s Colours yarn giveaway winner

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 7 Comments

Who is the lucky lady to win five balls of Vinni’s Colours Nikkim cotton hand dyed yarn?

Congratulations Brenda B!

Just to be clear on how the draw took place, I used Random.org to pick a random number between 1 and 24 seeing as I had 24 comments. Brenda’s comment was the 15th. (UTC time of 15:00 is GMT 16:00.)

Brenda please use the Contact Me form to send me your address and I’ll get your yarn in the post for you. Please let me know what you think of the yarn. In fact, send me photos of what you make! You must be so happy, seeing as your favourite colours were purple and now you’ve won the purple shades! Lucky you!

Thank you to everyone who commented. It was really an eye opener to see what shades you guys like the most. One surprise was that Mahogany came up five times. Who would have thought?

A lot of you said you like purple shades which is exactly the shades I have for sale in my Etsy shop. Remember, 25p from each ball sold goes to Kidney Research UK, so you’ll be doing your bit for charity whilst “enhancing” your stash. Win-win and no guilt for spending money on yarn!