Zombie and Woolly Hugs. Our second thread! Come and find out about Candy's Hugs, all very welcome.

[KnottyAndPistey]

Welcome to our second thread, may it be as vibrantly riotous as the first!

Anyone reading this thinking Shall I? Can I? Yes you can! :) We would love to have you on board, from someone who is keen to learn crochet or knitting to the more experienced, ALL are welcome here. And a lack of funds is no barrier, we have wonderful donors who want to take part and need a crafter, so we can send you yarn, needles and hooks if necessary. It is all about being inclusive and team work.

So let's crack on!

This then a C&P of the crafting info from thread one.

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. wine wine 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, let's do it! 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! smile

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

Thursday, I made it up.

It's torchon ground with cloth stitch and star stitches, if that helps!

LEM, I hope ddog is OK.

Spindelina wow, you made that up? It looks so intricate (and the names don't help, I don't recognise any of them!)

Pop how are you feeling today?

It's all just done on a diagonal grid - each pair of bobbins starts in the top row and goes down diagonally top left to bottom right or top right to bottom left; whenever they cross (so at each corner of each square in the grid) you do a stitch. It's just a matter of choosing what stitch, and then keeping 42 pairs of bobbins in the right order!

(Am I convincing anyone to give it a go yet?!)

K&P. That looks fab! Well done to you both, the lovely putter togetherer & everyone who has a square of hugs in it. I actually all of the blankets have Hugs in them from everyone involved in the project, 'tis Magic hug gathering.

It's lovely to know that some of the blankets will go to MNers xx

POP. How are you today my lovely?

Do you have any spare ££? I'm looking to raise a lot bit. We have builders next door, this is the first week, they're likely to be there quite some time. One (maybe more than one, but it sounds like one) of them needs singing lessons, BADLY. Fortunately their choice of radio station isn't too bad, thankfully as I can't hear myself think, but bloody hell, Ive known cats in pain to make a more melodic noise 😖 The singing though, is still preferable to his 'Oh yeah' 'woohoo' 'yeee haaaa' & other intermittent shouting unrelated to building. ...oh dear god, he's now warbling along to Celine Dion... I NEED ☕️ - perhaphs out of the house 😂

LEM. I hope DDog is on the mend this morning x

you just need Bose noise cancelling headphones Chipping
right, off to have my hair cut , and post off my first parcel of squares.

LEM - hope your woofa is doing ok lovely, must be a worry for you, hugs x

Beautiful squares ahoy, thank you everyone, love the photos on here, please keep them coming!

Sadly we can't commit to posting photos on here, even with the 30 pics a day limit, so many projects and we run out and just get in a pickle. But, there is an album here which we will keep updated!

I think you can still access FB photos if not a member? Fingers crossed. x

I'm not on Facebook but I can see the album. The colours are really beautiful.

K&P. I don't do FB, but I can sort of see the album. The 'join now' banner stays there, so it's a little tricky. I'm sure MN would remove the limit on your account if you asked them I'll send biscuits & gin if you feel bribery is the way forward 😂

bookbook I can't wear headphones or I might have nipped out to buy some by now 😬 Even when he's just talking he's seriously loud, I'm thankful he's not my neighbour, just a temporary PITA workman 😂

LEM hope your woofa is ok

Spin that is amazing

Well today I hit gold, day off went into town to check out the new wool shop, not only is she lovely but she does drop in sessions on Saturday afternoons, she does private lessons for £7.50 an hour so going to book two, hopefully with my SIL and do a crochet basics and then how to do a granny square, I think a whole new world has just opened up

Five. Excellent news! What is her stock of wool like? One near me stocks Zombie Candy Wool, but none of the ones that we use for 'wool' blankets, unfortunately. You can't blame them though, it's a huge outlay for them to carry several brands/ranges.

Smallish, no Stylecraft as the local department store has expanded its wool and stocks that and she can't but can order it in for me, I didn't have a good look, there is some similar to Debbie Bliss etc will check the name and see if I can use it, I would love to support her rather than a big on line store.

I did buy some lovely wool for my Godsons jumper and she is the type of person who you could ask and she will get, I think I have stumbled onto a great place

Five. I hope it works out well for her 😊

Ddog is home He has pancreatitis so has been really sick. We scanned and x-rayed him today as i was worried about something more sinister. We scanned everything and all looked fine. He has really bad arthritis on his spine but he is on pretty strong pain meds just now we can formulare a plan to help him long term once his pancreas settles.

Have been in work most of the day with ddog so only got one square done. It was half pattern and half sucked out of my thumb. I am really pleased with it. some pics of my squares and ddog chilling in front of fire.

Hope everyones hooking is going well.

Oh LEM ours had a bout of that a couple of months ago, he is no longer with us for other reasons, but recovered well from the pancreatitis, fingers crossed

Sorry to hear about your pooch Five. They are family members

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-elephant-jumpers-villagers-knit-protect-near-freezing-temperatures-weather-mathura-a7535101.html

That is one big woolly hug!

Catching up as I've not had chance to do any crochet since Sunday. Just been looking at all the wonderful squares and the inaugural Candy's Hug, absolutely beautiful.
Right, getting off the internet and starting to crochet now.

GardenGeek it depends on tension but I usually cast on 33 stitches and work around 48 rows.

Lovely to see a photo of your dog LEM, really hope he's feeling better soon.

Sad to hear about your dog Five

Evening!
Five - lovely that you have a local wool shop, she sounds lovely too - you lucky thing!
LEM glad to hear your ddog is home and on the mend, hopefully
Garden - as Madison says , we all knit to different tensions. I have found the stylecraft a bit looser for me, so I cast on 30 stitches ( though 1 more or less depending on the pattern) and 44 -46 rows .:)
Only 1 today for Candy's Hugs , on a new colour palette from the rainbow

I forgot to say I didmt have my list of colours with me today and appear to have gone slightly out there and bought mustard