Zombie and Woolly Hugs. Come and find out about Candy's Hugs, we need your help.

[KnottyAndPistey]

Our lovely Zombie (who has said she doesn’t mind being outed as Candy) has long been a supporter of Woolly Hugs, bless her for it! Recently she made a very kind donation to us, and we would love to start an Ongoing project to honour this remarkable woman, who we have both had the privilege of meeting, dancing and drinking with. She is utterly fab-u-lous. :)

After a chat with Zombie we have made a plan which she loves. We would like to make comforting cosy blankets with love in every stitch for women going through treatment for breast and other cancers, and at times these may form part of palliative care. They will be called Candy’s Hugs.

Zombie is a bright and beautiful woman so we have chosen a palette to reflect this which we call Vibrant Riot; it is inspired too by a blanket that was made for her to give big hugs as she goes through treatments.

Will you join with us? If you would like to be involved in any way, we’d love to have you on board. Please post on this thread and PM with your offers: crafting, donating, need wool, etc, we can help you with all of it.

The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK. Just this please for consistency, and in these colours...

Vibrant Riot Palette
Boysenberry
Claret
Empire
Fuchsia
Grass
Kelly green
Lavender
Lime
Lipstick
Magenta
Meadow
Petrol
Plum
Pomegranate
Saffron
Sherbet
Shrimp
Spice
Turquoise
Tomato
Violet

Squares to be 12 inch or 6 inch, crochet or knitted equally welcome, please use 4mm hook or needles. No blocking necessary and please sew in ends, and make sure any colour changes are firmly knotted.

All crafting abilities genuinely welcome, squares made by beginner or expert will be equally cherished. Simple, complex, single colour, mixed colour. It really is the love and thought that counts.

If you would like to learn how to knit or crochet in 2017, crack on! We have help for the complete beginner here…. And are on hand to help talk you through as well. YouTube has lots of tutorials, you WILL find one that suits! :)

If you feel ambitious and would like to make a whole blanket, then that is wonderful, we are aiming for blankets approx 48 inches by 60 inches, certainly no smaller.

Candy’s Hugs will be an ongoing project, our first posting date is to be January 28th. Do message for posting info when ready.

We are on Facebook - Woolly Hugs and Twitter too @Woolly_Hugs both are good ways to keep in touch.

Thank you so much xx

Looking forward to your blog pop.

Zombie, you are brilliant and one of my favourite MNetters.

I'm supposed to be painting my kitchen tonight but am itching to do another square instead. Also, can someone please convince me I have enough yarn. I want to buy some turquoise and orange

Achhh. Just buy it, glen. It will come in useful at some point!

I've decided that turquoise and orange may be the way to go for my hair in the spring 😁

Beautiful squares already here for our new project Candy's Hugs! All wonderful, thank you so much, have just posted the first pic on our Facebook page and more to come this evening.

We only have their actual names hence initials here, but they are on Mumsnet :)

JE

RS

EH

JS

Thank you everyone xx

And another lovely donor to thank, funds arrived safely today, will pay them in tomorrow, bless your heart, you are fabulous

fruitbats

Such an amazing team effort

Thank you KnottyAndPistey

Zombie you are amazing

You are all fantastic. I'm jealous loving the pictures of the squares.

Cozie, when DH finds the 8 extra balls I've just ordered I'm holding you responsible!!

Ooh Alice, I love your puff stitch flower square - any chance you have a link to a pattern?

I've done one 12" and I'm halfway through another, love the lovely bright colours making my January more cheerful

my wool has arrived!!! am so excited but can someone please start me off on a granny square. My mind has gone blank but reckon once ive started i should be good to go.....

I managed to unlock the bloody thing! Warning, it's v v basic...I basically just posted a few time then abandoned it- but I was inspired to resurrect it for this project

getknottedblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/woolly-hugs-from-heart-to-hook/

Madison is it knitted? It looks fantastic! 😁

This year I am venturing out of garter stitch squares thanks to the Pinterest link earlier

thanks

It turns out I can't do bullion stitch and there's been an awful lot of ripping back. Then a bunch of my most promising Pinterest leads turned out to be just photos, not patterns, or in fact totally dead links, or links to the front page of a blog and not the particular thing I wanted.

So I've had a small sulk and will go back to my ACTUAL PHYSICAL BOOK WITH PROPER INSTRUCTIONS this evening.

I ch1 between 3trc and ch3 at corners, except for the final round where I ch2 in corners.

I magic ring to start because I find a normal "ch6 ss" ring almost impossibly difficult

MrsHathaway do you ever find that, when you start wit a magic ring, the square opens up when it stretches? I tried it this way and ended up with a porthole!

Not really - I pesky it in straightaway usually (or crochet in the tail, if possible) so it's pretty well anchored.

And though I say so myself, my peskies are like dandelion roots.

I get too thick a ring when I use a magic circle, 6sl st gapes a bit too, thinking about trying 5sl st next time. I do three trebles, chain, three trebles with 3ch at corners, if I do as Polter describes my square curls.

Loving the pics on Facebook! Has anyone got a link to a c2c tutorial? They look amazing & I'd love to learn

Well how annoying is this?

I'm happily crocheting a puff flower granny square when, with 8 stitches to go, my yarn runs out!!!!
I've had to finish off in Lime instead of Meadow - see bottom right of picture and share in my frustration!!!

Pop Thanks, yes it is. It's basically 3 rows of stocking stitch, 1 row of cable back, 3 rows stocking, 1 row cable forward and repeat. Very quick and easy to knit!

Ooh, fairy, that's rubbish. Maybe someone will have some ideas to make that bit into a feature. Or you could frog the last round and re-do it all in the other colour?

I have ordered MrsH's book from the library to check it out.

I don't know about anyone else but I get bored doing the same pattern over and over, so I love seeing other peoples' squares