You only need to be concerned with your linux boot parameters. To do that, just make your new kernel's stanza the first one in the list of boot options. In my case, just switch the vmlinuzold stanza with the bzImage stanza. You need to download the patches you require, in sequential order from the patchlevel of your current kernel source, to the patchlevel you wish to upgrade to. 2.2.9 through to 2.2.11.
Kernel patches follow the same naming conventions as the kernel itself does.
You do not have to store your kernel patches in any specific location, rather it is the location where you execute the patch command that is important. To patch your kernel, you must do the following as root. You run the patch command above for each patchfile in sequential order. This is all you should need to do. To make sure all the patches were applied successfully, issue the following as root.