Welcome to our Chernobyl project for 2017

[KnottyAndPistey]

Welcome to our Chernobyl project for 2017!! So glad to have you on board!

For the last three years we have been making warm, comforting Little Hugs for Belarusian teenagers and children visiting the UK for recuperative holidays during the summer with the fabulous charity the Chernobyl Children's Project and Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline. Photos from the Leeds group can be seen here.. and our finished blankets from last year here…

Each year these marvellous charities bring children who live in the most contaminated area near the Chernobyl reactor over to the UK. In summer, when the dust causes radiation levels to rise, it becomes even more important for as many children as possible to leave their contaminated homeland for a few weeks of fresh air and clean food. The rates of childhood cancer are very high, the most common cancers being thyroid and leukemia. Coming to the UK for a four week break increases their immunity against the awful disease by up to 3 years when they return home. Often these children are in remission. Sadly though there is a high chance of these children falling ill again. They all suffer living in such difficult conditions and with very little.

Last year 36 children, teens and their interpreters went home with a beautiful Woolly Hug. This year we are keen to help even more groups, so Liverpool, Gloucester/Leeds (same Leeds group but this year spending 2 weeks at each location) Portsmouth and Helpston,Northampton.

That is about 70+ blankets!!

With your help we know we can do this

Please do join us, here’s how..

Crafting Information

• We would like 12" squares in bright and cheery Stylecraft Special DK colours.
• PLEASE AVOID USING black, bright green, bright pink, browns, greys, citron, sunshine, fiesta, jaffa and any pale pastels, white or cream for practical reasons. This will help squares fit together more easily.
• Make squares in a neutral colour theme, or more specifically for a boy or girl. As much as we don’t like to think of colour as being gender specific, these children may.
• We will be happy to accept 6" squares if making a 12" one feels too much.
• Crochet or knitted, 4mm hook or needles. Single colour, mixed colour, simple, complex. No blocking and please sew in pesky ends.
• If needed, we can supply yarn. Let us know if we can send to you.
• Posting of squares please to the South Coast address, PM if you need it.

If you think you’d like to make a whole blanket that is WONDERFUL, but please contact us first. We will be asking for gender neutral blankets which are 48 inches by 60m, but would just like to chat to you first, thank you!

Supporting with funds
If anyone would like to donate funds to support this, we would be so grateful. Please PM us for the donation info. Thank you xx

Can anyone help with extras?
There are a few extras which we will be collecting too alongside squares, items which really help, if you would like to add in any of these we would love to receive them for the children, thank you, bless you.

Underwear aged 10 plus. New only

• Adult size socks (one size fits all) new
• Toothbrushes, single packed please
• Hairbrushes
• Toiletries, toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo etc, but not bars of soap please.
• Sanitary Towels
• Plasters
• Vitamins, please check suitable for 10 years+
• Any little luxuries that teens might love, eg hair clips, make up bits, stickers etc.

If you would like to add 50p in when you post squares for ice creams that would be so kind, we will split any money we receive between the groups.

Last posting of squares (plus whole blankets) and any extras is Saturday 8th April

No later please as we have to get on and sort at the end of that following week. Thank you. The rush will be on as the first group, Portsmouth arrive in May.

What a big ask! Good grief!

But the fabulous Woolly Hug crew never fail to amaze, last year was an astonishing team effort, as the photo shows, we know that together we can do this.

On behalf of these children and their families, a huge THANK YOU.
Actually, thank you doesn't really come close.

Us xxx

• Photo is the collection from last year that went to the Portsmouth group.

The little one I am holding in the photo above literally RAN at me and climbed up - she hung on like a limpet and refused to be put down

What beautiful babies x

Well I don't know whether to laugh or cry!!!

I've tried 3 squares from my new book and the size difference is frightening!!!

All should be 6" - pic 1 shows then stacked on top of each other so you can see the size disparity!!!

The first square is posted on my earlier thread and is almost 7" square, the other 2 squares from my book are pictured here.

I feel a plain and simple granny cluster square is needed to restore my confidence gin will also help

The construction crew are going to have a challenge on their hands

Thank-you for sharing ilove I think what you do is amazing. If anything the TAAT has raised awareness and I would say that 99% of the posters were defending the project. In fairness to the OP she didn't ever question the validity of the project. Just the statistics but like everyone has said the figures and the why's and wherefores take nothing away from the dire need that is faced by those families. Whether that is caused directly by the fallout really doesn't matter. The need is obvious and THANK GOD for people like you who get off their arses and DO SOMETHING. Thank you so so much xx

Fairy, send them all, lovely. It's amazing how hooking together can bring these squares in line.

And a huge thanks to all supporting this project and these amazing children, be that by Crafting, donating, being host families or just generally cheerleading. It makes such a difference

Fairy, measure your hook. Most are 6". I use mine to guide me when working, esp in the round. That way you can adjust as you go.
It may be that sizing down to a 3.5mm hook might help when you are doing horizontal style squares.
But as long as sqs gently stretch to the size needed, or go slightly over , all is fine.

Just to let you know that MNHQ have changed our OP at our request, to remove statistical figures. Hopefully this will help avoid any further issues regarding that.
Thanks, HQ x

Excellent, that's sorted then.
My squares are spice, turquoise and fuchsia so far.

Ta daaa!

Perfect, K&P

Bloody hell - I spend most of a day off MN and a Woolly Hugs thread turned into a mini-bunfight???

Lovely squares, everyone.

Have had a busy weekend involving no time for hooking! I will put up pics of my completed ones tomorrow when I get round to photographing them.

K&P I've sent a PM to you as I could happily use some more wool if there's some available

And I have replied

Yes, I have woolly wool.

I am having a ball (see what I did there) knitting squares.
I am alternating between Chernobyl and Candy's. But have to remember which colour is which!

I have watched more TV in the last few days than for ages and dcs are very pleased as I have caught up on lots of recordings so clearing space on the box!

*Sizing8 - I have knitted the owl pattern and the heart from the patterns Mrs H posted.
The owl came up OK, but my tension is obviously a little tighter, it is 30 stiches which doesn't make a 6" square for me, so I did 32.
It is also too short. I may pick up and knit a couple of extra layers on it, as it is quite small.

The heart ones though. They are 30 stiches by 30 rows as far as I can see. The trouble is for me 30 rows isn't anywhere near 6".
The pattern looks a little squashed too, which makes me wonder if I am missing something. I am following a grid pattern and assumed that one grid square = one stitch. Is that right?

I have added to it so the square is 6", but the pattern would have been sitting off centre to the bottom, so I have added an extra mini heart above.

Anyone find this? Am I doing this wrong somehow?

Thank you K&P!

I've been teaching myself to crochet for this project as I'd read that it's quicker than knitting, and with so many squares needed for this project I thought I'd better get moving a bit faster.
I'm now addicted to making granny squares. I've made four in the last 24 hours, about to start the fifth
So far for Chernobyl I have a 12" knitted square and 6x 6" crocheted ones.

Two 12" squares finished so far (and one half done).

Madison I'm impressed with your productivity. I also switched to crochet for Woolly Hugs purposes after being very impressed that someone had hooked EIGHT squares in 24 hours for one of the MN blankets!

doing garter stitch and no messing around with colour changes I have discovered I can do one and a half 6" squares in an evening. But that assumes sitting down at 7:30 and not going to bed until about 12!

and plain garter stitch is a tad boring.

fairy I join the squares and sometimes the size difference is quite a bit but somehow crocheting them together brings them together. And when the blankets are finished i can never tell which were the smaller or larger squares. Those two squares are lovely

pterobore your are a constructionator!
Please can you tell me the things that really cheese you off, so I can try to avoid them (novice knitter).
I sew my ends in and try to make the squares a bit smaller, rather than larger, but what else makes you annoyed?

What cheeses me off is not being able to tell which is the right side of a knitted square. :o Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it clearly doesn't matter but sometimes I really don't Know! It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of a whole blankets but I do worry that I've not put a knitters square in as they intended. Not really cheesed off I guess and it's not something anyone can do differently.

Personally, I prefer knitted squares to be slightly on the small side rather than slightly large. They will always stretch to fit but sometimes it's tricky to get a too big knitted one not to "bag". Most things are workable though.

definitely sew in pesky ends though. Not doing so should be a capital offence

Madison
I too am learning crotchet for this, as they are quicker :)- On holiday, so I can practise with no interruptions !
I am enjoying the c2c best so far , a little less holey than the granny squares.
The wool here is a bit interesting though - I ran through what I had brought with me, so had to go into a Merceria - and me with very basic language problems . The lady was exceedingly patient......

definitely sew in pesky ends though. Not doing so should be a capital offence

I agree in general, particularly if you have a lot of colour changes, but in my (limited) experience it's far harder to repair someone else's insecure peskies than it is to pesky a long tail myself, so for me I'd encourage people to learn good tight pesky techniques rather than just tucking them in a bit. Once your square has been posted twice and pinned/clipped together and teased a bit and hooked, that tuck comes undone.

Mrs H - any tips on good pesky techniques then?

Didn't mean to sound so stroppy

Crucially, though, the hidden bit needs to change direction IYSWIM - so you could go under a few stitches, then come back under the same few.