Part 2. Our blanket making for lovely waffle heads into its final stages.

[KnottyAndPistey]

Welcome everyone, this is our second thread as we craft a blanket for lovely wafflenose. We are heading into the final stages as last posting is MONDAY 13th APRIL. Just looking at the squares already received, we know our blanket is going to be beautiful inside and out. Crafters and donors have been astonishingly generous in both funds and time,. We are so grateful, thank you everyone.

💐

Our previous thread is here...

Have repeated all the original crafting info as it is always useful to have it all in one place for reference.

We bring such sad news, lovely wafflenose has lost her younger daughter (L) through tragic circumstances and we are just so desperately sorry, thoughts very much with waffle, her family and all who loved her daughter. Really really devastating. Life has been desperately cruel. You may well recognise waffle from music/education/Extra-curricular threads here on MN. Both her lovely daughters have been involved with Mumsnet.

We are so glad waffle would like to receive a Woolly Hug. For those new on here, this is a long standing tradition on Mumsnet where folk come together to make a blanket for one of our own who has been bereaved. There will be love crafted into every stitch. We want it to be a tribute and full of memories. We hope it may give whatever comfort it can.

People have described L as a quiet light, the gentlest of souls. Let us make something truly beautiful in her honour.
So we come again asking for help and shall need both crafters and donors of funds of wool. Can you help us? We would be truly grateful. Thank you

Important crafting info
Squares to be six inches, using 4mm needles or hook. Please knot off VERY carefully when finishing or changing colour and sew your ends in, thank you! No blocking please, makes it much easier to join squares.
Simple or complex, made by beginner or expert, we genuinely welcome them all. It really is the love and thought that counts.

We have some ideas for themes..
Initials please E, G, L and K
She played the recorder, the clarinet and the cello, but focused mainly on the clarinet latterly and played in the National Children's Orchestra Under 10s for a while. Her NCO hoodie was bright blue - a bit like Yarnsmith dark turquoise.
She loved art and reading and was very creative. Loved Harry Potter and would probably have been in Hufflepuff house had she been at Hogwarts.
She had a quirky mind and used to love lego.
She was quite a fashionista. Loved Vogue magazine and Miss Dior perfume
Favourite colours were pink and white (pink more than white).
English literature was the love of her life. We are hoping someone can recreate a bookshelf square? One of her favourite books was Jane Eyre. She had also been studying Plath and Hughes.
She loved swimming and the great outdoors, particular the Quantock Hills. (Photo) We are hoping this may act as an inspiration.
Work/volunteering: she did Brownies and Guides and volunteered as a Rainbow Guider and also volunteered on a hospital ward for a while. She worked as a waitress and at the village pub.
She was interested in philosophy and was planning to become a psychologist/counsellor.
She liked Fleetwood Mac.
She kept tropical fish, hamsters and gerbils and loved all other animals especially cats.
She also liked art and photography.
She was very passionate about being an organ donor - and several people have now received life-saving operations because of her. A truly wonderful young woman.

Lots of ideas and ways to get to know L better. If you can recreate a theme on a square, wonderful, but we also need simple squares, A square in one of her favourite colours is perfect too.

The MAIN Colours. We will be using her favourites,
Pinks from pale baby pink through to magenta.
Cream, but only please Drops Merino Extra Fine - Off White (01) or Yarnsmiths Merino DK Superwash - Off White (3045)
Lighter silvers
Greens pale to mid. Think nature inspired
Then embellishments and accents ONLY please (not whole squares)
Blues - sky to navy inc turquoise.
Sunset shades - red, orange, yellow, gold, but only if creating a sunset!
Browns taupe to mid
Charcoal grey
Black

The Yarn we will be Using for Consistency ….
Yarnsmiths Merino DK Superwash - a BIG sale at Wool Warehouse. Has the widest range of colours
Debbie Bliss Rialto DK only available on Love Crafts
Drops Merino Extra Fine DK.
Katia Merino 100% DK
King Cole Luxury Merino DK

Just from the brands listed please because we know they combine for wash and wear. If you still have any of our wools that have been discontinued or have become less easy to find- Artesano Superwash Merino DK, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK, Patons Merino Extrafine DK or James C. Brett Pure Merino DK in your stash, please do use them.
Posting will be Teddington, please message if you need the address. If you'd like to include a card for her family , please send with your squares. And please don't forget to include your name!
If you can upload photos of your squares on here as we go along, that will be a lovely record, especially if you have donated yarn.
Will set the last posting date once we are underway but it will be approx 6 weeks hence

Thoughts and love very much with waffle, we are so so sorry. Remembering L

❤️

Tea, battenberg cake AND a presentation by Maud!

Edging looks gorgeous @KnottyAndPistey . As does the cake.

I'm finding myself thinking that it would be nice to make a photobook of the story of the blanket's creation, told through the antics of Maud and Fawley. Would anyone object to me using pictures from the thread for this (esp @Boiledbeetle )?

BTW Lauren's 18th birthday would have been this coming Monday. Please everyone hold the waffle family in your hearts especially this weekend and on Monday.

What a lovely idea.

You can use mine. However when you download them it's a much smaller file than the ones I uploaded (example, last image was 3.31MB originally, the downloaded version is only 1.04MB.) It might not make a difference but if you do need the larger files send me a Private Message and we can arrange for me to email them to you over many, many, many emails!!

I'll be thinking of the waffle family over the next few days.

It's so nearly at an end...

Maud will return to the Bluestocking...

😢

Fawley is hiding under the bed. She’s so sad at the thought of Maud leaving.

I'm with Fawley 😟

Is this treble, chain one, miss a stitch, treble, it's so pretty and I think I may be able to add this to current blanket

Yes. Then if you then chose a contrasting colour and do the same but alternate it also looks good. I’d still finish off with the original colour with a last round of DC

Peskie ends are depeskied. Fawley is just supervising them.

Oh my goodness! Just had 5 mins of sun before it rained and went grey again. I got a couple of pics in the garden which will work if tomorrow when I have real time, I can’t get any because of the forecast storms. So we have pics. First time I’ve seen it as a whole. Just wow.

And it is everything we wanted it to be for Lauren.

I saved this beautiful Quantock Hills square from lovely @IoWfairy and bought this frame. (Thank you lovely donors again!) Got some poetry lines about the Quantocks coming, either Coleridge or Wordsworth, which will go on the mount underneath. And it’s a truly beautiful piece to go alongside the blanket.

Lovely @IoWfairy you are def represented in the blanket too. ❤️

OMG @KnottyAndPistey I am a bit overwhelmed.
I am so delighted that you are using that particular square. It was started on the spur of the moment, an afterthought, because I was touched by the way that the Quantock hills were so meaningful for Lauren. I really wanted to honour that. It was done with feeling.
In true Woolly Hugs fashion, there was love in every one of those stitches but, as it wasn’t as easy as I imagined, there were probably quite a few expletives caught into it too! 🫢
Big hugs to waffle 🤗

So inspiring and moving. That square is beautiful ... it is a lovely embodiment of thoughts and feelings and memories, a microcosm of the blanket itself, and a little piece of brilliance in itself.

I'd like to make one just like that myself, but shall content myself with admiring your work, knowing the all-too-prevalent Swearing Tendency in my own makeup.

Thanks @KnottyAndPistey just tried to send you a photo of my current blanket to see if you think border is too plain! But inbox doesn't allow photos!
Never mind I will just stick with what I have, it's a gift for someone and I keep getting it out and rechecking.

Poor Fawley. Maud has tried showing her on Gerbilview that even though Maud is going home soon she's not actually going very far, but Fawley keeps stomping her paw and meowing pitifully.

It’s closer than I thought!

Poor Fawley. It gets worse. She just got shut in our downstairs loo.

This is one of her baby pictures. She’s just showing Maud.

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

I made it to the park! This beautiful cloud heart was in the sky on my way. I did rotate it a bit but poetic licence no?!

Excuse the white lines. I shared the wrong version! 🤡

This one 😄

Neither Maud nor Fawley were terribly sure about the deer in the park. But they had a picnic while I took some photos. I said I’d keep an eye out for the deer and to be honest I forgot. Luckily they stayed away.

I see Maud was eventually persuaded that a deer is not to be feared.

So glad the weather played ball for you today.

That's just adorable! Maud in her Rara t-shirt...