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

I am absolutely rubbish at knitting or crochet, but if you send me a link to Paypal or similar I will gladly donate funds to buy wool with.

I'm happy to make squares or to construct given squares into blankets. I have nowhere local to buy stylecraft so some wool would be handy.

I would like to donate please!

Wonderful idea!

Can't knit to save m'wotsit, but I'll buy wool and send to someone to do the do.

I would happily purchase yarn for someone who is talented enough (unlike me) to knit these... happy to be pm'd accordingly. Xxx

Megatherium

If you know how to do a granny square that's a very good start.
As the square grows you can check the size and decide how many more rounds you need.
It all depends on tension.

I typically do 9 rounds in a 6" square (and 18 in a 12" square) - although sometimes it's 8 rounds of tr plus one round of dc.

Does this help?

Starter hookers are usually best off going round and round doing granny squares - you keep going until it's the right size, then stop.

and she's even using the right yarn. She chats a lot for the first four minutes and then walks through very gently.

Lostpangolin. So sorry your wife is following the same road . Thinking of your family .

I want to do some squares too. Slow due to tremor but every slow stitch with love . I would be grateful for a donor ball of wool if that is not cheeky .

Just picked up the email KnottyAndPistey.
I am just doing some squares and bonnets for the refugees, then have a baby coat to knit, but after that I will gladly start on this.
I would appreciate some wool , if possible.
Do we have a date for needing to be in?

Also meant to say Mega that once you are more confident that your tension is even and 'predictable' there are loads of free patterns on Pinterest and Ravelry that you could try.

Try to err on the side of looser tension rather than too tight.
it's not easy to get the squares to be exactly 6" , but they will stretch enough and be snuggly
Your squares will be fab though, no matter what

Thanks, Zing, granny squares are definitely within my range. In a way I'd like to be a bit more ambitious, but maybe I can spice them up with different colours anyway.

I Really, really must read the post properly before asking inane questions... Sorry - seen it's Jan 28th and then on going!

I truly wish I could knit. to you all.

I've always followed the Wooly Hugs threads, but never been brave enough to contribute.
It might only be one colour, but is a simple crocheted square ok? Could you PM me posting details please?

What a marvellous thing. Would love to contribute.

Howard

Maybe you could learn to crochet? It's very easy.

Mega
You're welcome.
Another fab pattern is corner 2 corner, often referred to as C2C.
Only uses chain stitch & tr stitch.
And again you can check size as you go.
I highly recommend you try it!
(I'm making 2x C2C WH blankets with leftover yarn, they will look so nice!)

Ooo Zing that crochet pattern looks lovely, I might try that :)

OMG c2c is so hard. And I Tunisian.

The reason I like crochet over knitting especially for joint blanket squares is that they are very forgiving for tension and squareness and size except c2c which is sorcery so your square will definitely definitely fit in.

If you think it's too plain you could look at adding embellishments - there are some nice ones on WH Pinterest. The tension on those is very flexible too!

To those who say that they can't knit or just know the basics, that was me a year ago and then I read about Woolly Hugs, got involved and I've become more and more adventurous as time has gone by.
Bear in mind though, it's very addictive

My aim for this year is to learn how to crochet.

If there's anyone living near Paisley who'd like to learn to knit or crochet, to contribute to this project, I'd be happy to meet up and teach you the basics.

Oooh I am in! I have some saffron from a previous hug, but I would love a few more so I can do some multicoloured squares. Zombie is brilliant and I would love to help her legacy.

Thank you so much!

But - despite emails & websites, can some bugger just type: 12 stitches (or whatever) and for 12 rows.

Please

Fid - if knitting all the way across and then turning round and knitting back, I'd suggest casting on about 36 and after maybe six rows have a measure.

For a plain ish knitted square I usually cast on 40 and do about 50 rows (I think) but I am very tight and just rely on measuring.

Clarify: after six rows, make sure that your 36 stitches across are actually measuring six inches. Then keep going until it's also six inches tall.

Fiderer - are you asking for basic stitches on knitting a 6" x 6" square.
On DK and size 4mm needles , I do 32 stitches and 36 rows of stocking stitch , if that is what you mean?