Last week I thought I had done my last “your hexagons” post, but you guys surprised me once again. I received a further 42 hexagons! These parcels were probably sent to me a day or two before the 7th of February so they arrived after the deadline. Fear not, I will use these hexagons in a blanket. In fact, between the hexagons left over from last week and this batch, we have the makings of one more colourful blanket!

I know you’ve been wondering what our blankets look like. Wait no more! It was such a lovely sunny Winter’s day today I took the opportunity to string the six completed blankets against our back garden fence. I just couldn’t resist.

I will definitely post full size photos of each blanket when they’re all done, but for now here is a collage for you to enjoy.

The top left hand side pink and purple blanket is the work of San Bee of Loopsan blog. Her blanket arrived beautifully wrapped with crocheted hearts and crochet tie. Isn’t it sweet? I had to undo the ties to take the photo but will retie it exactly this way to present to the patient.

She even did a photo tutorial for making a hexagon – as if crocheting a whole blanket isn’t enough! Click here for her hexagon photo tutorial.

What do you think of our blankets? Do you think it will cheer up the recipients? You should see the colour combinations of the other blankets I still have to join up. They’re so, so, so pretty!

As I said last week, I don’t need any more hexagons. As it is, I’m crocheting away like a mad woman to get everything joined up before 28 February. Speaking of which, enough typing for now. I have blankets to make 🙂

Crochet For Kidneys Part II is almost at an end. This is the last week and boy you guys know how to rally at the end! Last week I received 229 and this week I received 209! The 209 include 61 hexagons given to me at today’s hookup at Court Farm Garden Centre cafe. It’s crazy! Like John says: “Crocheters are so cool”.

I am going to do a separate blog post about today’s hookup. It was such a great morning it surely deserves its own blog post, so here are the 209 hexagons I received this week:

Yes you read right. Liz gave me the hexagons you see above, as well as a whole blanket! She made it in purple and white hexagons, the perfect mix of Crochet For Kidneys Part I and Part II. I will show you her blanket when I post photos of all our blankets a bit later in February.

As you can see I had to put some hexagons to use before I could take the photos because they fitted in so perfectly with the blankets I was putting together. My method of making these charity hexagon blankets is to group colours together so that the blankets are not a total mishmash of crazy colours (I love me my crazy colour combos but it might be a bit much for a dialysis patient. Hey, it might be a bit much for most people).

As I open the  parcels of hexies I could see the colour themes developing. For instance I put together a teal, yellow, orange & purple blanket. I also have a blanket in dark tones and one in autumnal colours. There’s a pastels blanket and a pink & orange one too. But the strange and totally amazing thing is that whenever I was short a few hexagons in a certain colour group, the Gods Of Crochet would send me exactly what I needed to complete the blanket!

Then there’s the red and green blanket… Up to today I received almost no hexagons that were worked with red yarn. That all changes with Pauline and Ann’s parcels. Not only did I all of a sudden have red hexagons, they both combined the red with green and the two of them had made enough between them for a full blanket. It’s as if Pauline and Ann worked together to make a blanket! I just love it!!

I packed out a design for the red & green blanket on our living room carpet and it worked! (None of the other blankets follow a specific pattern, they’re arranged randomly.) When I started arranging the hexagons (the green at the top left corner was the first one) I didn’t know whether I had enough or whether I would be able to keep up the pattern. It was one of those “close your eyes and hope for the best” moments. As I reached the second to last row I held my breath and when I got to the green hexagon in front of my feet (yes, I’m wearing red tipped socks too. Crazy!) I could finally exhale. I also did a little happy dance. Of course.

At last count it looks like we will have 11 blankets to give to the Royal London Hospital.   Eleven! That’s so much more than I could have hoped for. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed.

For the moment I don’t need any more hexagons. (If you have made hexagons but not posted them yet, then of course please still send them to me.)

John and I are planning to deliver the blankets to the dialysis unit on the 28th of February.  That gives me three weeks to join up all the hexagons and for anyone out there who has been working on a whole blanket, to post the blanket to me – that’s you amazing ladies Gill, Jane, Tammy and San.

Thank you again for each and every hexagon that I received from all over the world. You really are the best an I can’t thank you enough!

This week has been the best week yet for Crochet For Kidneys Part II. I received 10 parcels from 8 crocheters containing 229 hexagons! The 229 hexagons are enough for 3.8 blankets and brings the total hexagon count to a whopping 459 – enough for 7 and a half blankets! I know there are more hexagons on the way, so we should have at least eight blankets for dialysis patients at the Royal London Hospital!

I am so happy and so humbled by the charitable spirit of my blog readers. The cards and hand written notes with words of encouragement you include, also mean the world to me.

Here are the 229 hexagons I received:

If your are a member of the Crochet For Kidneys group you would have seen what happened to Sonja’s beautiful box of hexagons – I forgot them on the train!! I know right?! The box was delivered to my work address on Thursday, so I had to take it home with me. I got on the train at Waterloo and put it on the storage rack above my head. Only when I got home and wanted to show John the box with the beautiful flower stamps from Germany did I remember about the box. I kid you not, my heart stopped beating for a few seconds. I felt so incredibly stupid and very, very bad. All the hours of work, the yarn, the time spent making the hexagons and time and money spent on putting it in the post – and I forgot it on the train!

Thankfully someone saw the package and handed it in at the Lost Property office.  I collected it from there on Friday evening. Hooray for honest people!!!! I had to sign a sheet at the Lost Property office when I picked up, and paid £2, for my box of hexagons. The list showed what others had collected that day. I counted four iPads, two Tablets, reading glasses and right at the top of the list was a wallet! There were other things too, but this is all that I could make out in the short time it took Wilson to write down my details. Isn’t it wonderful to know that there are still honest and kind people out there?

Not that I need any more proof – I mean, I received 229 hexagons for charity blankets in just week. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In one week I received, wait for it, 87 hexagons from four lovely crocheters for Crochet For Kidneys Part II!! Whoo-hooo!!! 87 in one week!!! The total is now 193.

The fantastic Cathy sent me 40 hexagons from New Hampshire, USA. It arrived in a shoebox filled to the brim with brightly coloured hexagons. Love it!

Between Ellen, from Belgium, and Karen from South Africa I received 17 hexagons. They both used the African Flower Hexagon pattern. It’s just sooo pretty isn’t it? I love that these two ladies used the same pattern and achieved the same result: a strikingly beautiful hexagon, yet they live in opposite sides of the world – proof that good design is good no matter where you live or what language you speak.

Pauline sent me her hexagons, packaged in clear bags sorted by colour no less, via the  Document Exchange service for law firms. When she asked for my address and saw that I too work for a law firm, we decided to make use of DX. I don’t think crocheted hexagons have ever been sent using DX. Another first for Crochet For Kidneys 🙂

All of these ladies’ hexagons have already been incorporated in the first blanket. Yup, I’ve started to join up the hexagons. Like John said: we want to give the people their blankets while it’s still Winter so I thought I’d get going. I posted a few photos on the Facebook Group of me joining the hexagons. Go have a look here. I also posted that I realised we need 60 hexagons per blanket in order to get it to a decent size similar to the size of the purple and white square blankets.

If we need 60 hexagons per blanket, that means we now have enough for 3 blankets. Hopefully I’ll receive a few more so that we can make 5 blankets. I think 5 is a good number. Obviously more would be better, but at least 5 will make me happy.

I’m off to join some hexagons. Keep them coming ladies! Our blankets are going to be beautiful!

I received a further 32 hexagons for Crochet For Kidneys Part II!! That makes the total so far 106, which is enough for two very colourful blankets!

Emma Ashman and her mom sent me 17 colourful hexagons from Suffolk. Their Dad & Husband had suffered from kidney failure for years and passed away in November last year. It’s cases like these, and the good hearts of people like Emma and her Mom that motivate me to keep going with Crochet For Kidneys.  Thank you ladies for thinking of others when you could so easily have said you are done with all things “kidney failure” – which would have been understandable after what you have been through. Your participation truly means a lot to me.

Looking at the hexagons already received, I can tell that our blankets are going to be sooooo beautiful! Keep them coming!!!

We have 61 more hexagons for Crochet For Kidneys Part II!! Whoo-hooo!!!

I’m sure you will understand why I gave Jude’s hexagons an extra two photos. They are so crazy colourful!!!

It astounds me every time I receive a parcel filled with hexagons, that people are so nice. Nice enough that you give up your yarn, your time and pay for postage to make hexagons for strangers. None of you have to do this, but you do. And you don’t skimp on creativity, quality or neatness – I can see the care and love that have gone into your hexagons. It makes me very proud to be a crocheter.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of you have been making! Keep them coming!!!!

The first hexagons for Crochet For Kidneys Part II have arrived!! Whoo-hooo!!!

Thank you Mrs J for kicking off Part II with your neat and perfectly made 15 cm hexagons.

Keep them coming lovely readers!