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

FiveGoMadInDorset

I think the mustard fits in well, as do some of the other colours not included in our list. Looking at the colours available I'm not sure why some have been chosen & others not, but I bow to K&P's infinite wisdom 😊

I thought the beautiful square done by Laniakea Sunday 23:20 looked like mustard, but it might just be the light.

I'm sure your lovely wool lady will exchange it for you, if you haven't started using it already.

I'd like to use it and on a different square Jaffa, fiesta, fondant, bright green & citron - they remind me of macarons! I'd like to use the Candyfloss too - it seems fitting! 😁 The sunshine is pretty cool as well...

bookbook what colour is that? It looks too 'baby blue' on my screen to be sherbet, it looks more like cloud, which isn't on our list? Maybe it's my screen. I was hoping to order more yarn online as I'm more self controlled like that, let me look one in a wool shop & it's dangerous! But I'm not sure I can choose online if the colours aren't very accurate. Hmm...

. Magic mugs on the go!

It's nippy out, I'm making the most of the peace & quiet before MrLoud & the gang turn up. Yesterday (the 19th) I got a letter through the door, saying they'll be starting work next door on the 16th (😂) & they'll be working 7:30-17:30. Except when they are working longer hours 😂😂. That they will be as quiet & considerate as possible. Clearly they don't have a roll of gaffa tape, think parking every which way & across the driveways and leaving a ton of rubble, metal, glass everywhere is just fine 😫😳😂.

Best bit...they're aiming to be finished in 14 weeks. 14 WEEKS?!?!

Chipping it is Sherbet - bookbook got two balls and I have the other. It is quiet baby-blue-ish, and I find Shimp almost baby pink have done a distinctly wonky square using both, but will probably pair them differently from here on to meet the 'riotous' standard!

This may have been mentioned on one of the other WH threads but on Netflix they have Norwegian Slow Knitting Evening. I've been watching it on and off and got to the end yesterday. Towards the end is a feature with the Norwegian equivalent of K&P - she collects rectangles she makes up into blankets, and has several hundred in her home waiting to be sewn up.
The programme is worth watching to enjoy all the hours of knittiness, and a Knitting Night is also available.

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say well done for all of the amazing squares knitted so far - they're inspiring and intimidating! Also lovely to see the first Candy's hug blanket - a real reminder of why we're all doing this and how nice it will hopefully make someone feel. When my ds was born a few years ago he came back from weighing in the next room wearing a green woolly hat and I was all weepy at the idea that a stranger had done such a lovely thing as to knit for us.
Anyway my lovely wool arrived 2 days ago. I've already had to fight it off dd who thought it would make a nice hat on her hat making device... Despite the carrier bag of her own wool.
I was going to try to learn crochet but I think I'll start with knitting a few coloured squares. I tried a couple of lines with 35 stiches but it was way to wide so I'm going to try again with 30 stitches. Just need to do some essential domestic drudgery first.

Morning
Chipping - yep DD (flutter ) is spot on :) -its sherbet - it almost is baby blue, but with a brightness/ sheen .
welcome scallion - I feel as we are in a lovely knitting/crotchet bee on this thread, it gives me a lovely feeling to be part of it . I seem to need less stitches too !

Woolly experts...

Is there anything at all I can do with my 7.5" square? It was my first time trying anything that isn't a granny square but the measurements are a bit.. er.. generous.

I can't bring myself to rip it out, I suspect it's too odd to become a woolly hug blanket and I don't know whether there is a way to make it bigger?

Woolly experts...

Is there anything at all I can do with my 7.5" square? It was my first time trying anything that isn't a granny square but the measurements are a bit.. er.. generous.

I can't bring myself to rip it out, I suspect it's too odd to become a woolly hug blanket and I don't know whether there is a way to make it bigger?

flutterworc. Thanks for that. I think I'll have to make time to go to the shop & buy them instead of ordering online. Credit card at the ready 😖😂

IAmNotAUserNumber. Ah. Finally a good reason to sort out the free Netflix trial I must be able to get - everyman, dog & hamster I know has had a free trial.

Scallion. How old is DD? I'm going to get around to trying to crochet, but like you, I'm knitting a few squares first. I'm almost finished Tunnock's so I'll start on some for this next. I think I'll go to the wool shop today & choose far too many some colours. It sounds like this yarn knits up quite 'big' so I think I'll drop a few stitches & measure before I do too much. I have crochet envy on that front too!

bookbook. Thanks :)

thats lovely salad -
I am not a crotcehter , but could you do a few rows of edging around it to make it up to 12" ( sort of rounds like in a granny square ) you can tell I am floundering.....Hopefully someone much better than me will come along soon :)

saladdressing What a shame. How many did you cast on? I wonder if any of the hookers can add to it to make it the centre of a 12" square?

bookbook. We are like two fish on a dry dock 😂😂

Chipping yep . I am going to give crotchet a go too, , but in privacy. I will only let you know , if it is in the least bit successful!

Salad I would add rounds to the square as bookbook and Chipping have suggested.

Start with a round of double crochet beginning on either the top or bottom edge so that you know how many stitches to make down the sides, then rounds of either trebles or half trebles to get it to size.

(If you're feeling adventurous, maybe some clusters or v-stitch on some rounds? )

First thing I read on here is

two fish on a dry dock

Morning everyone! :)

Five What a find! Wish I lived near you, I'd book lessons, have this great desire to learn amigurami. That really makes me so happy for you! x

LEM Hoping Ddog feels a lot better very soon, praise be the drugs, and such beautiful woolly progress, you are jumping on in leaps and bounds!

Saw the elephants yesterday, look like our kind of folk there

GardenGeek Welcome, so glad to have you on board. If going for a 6 inch square the average is approx 33, so go for 66 for a twelve inch square, knit a few rows and measure again. Re colours, choose those you like, if we all do that it will be a proper vibrant riot!

SaladDressing - send it as it is with a note and we can add a crochet border to make it up to 12 inches? Be knit and crochet in the same square, how rogue! Or Rouge as my DD and her mates say, because they are teens so daft as brushes

Just about to write to the first recipient of the Candy's Hug project, she's a mumsnetter, so very much one of our own, as is the lovely MN Woolly Hugger who nominated her. Hoping to get it to her by Monday, just need an address.

Back later

Thank you all! I will have a go tonight at adding a border and report back.

Spiral I think that's what I needed to know - I couldn't figure out how to deal with the wonky edges!

Thank you for the PM K&P

I have a dilemma
I have a streaming cold so don't want to knit so the next best thing is going on the internet to buy more yarn - obviously. I want to buy the Stylecraft in rainbow colours to make up stripy squares but I can't decide whether to go for the correct colour combination (ROYGBIV) or the colours in the I Can Sing A Rainbow song - which are in the wrong order and erroneously include pink but not indigo (a fave colour of mine).
Maybe I can do scientifically correct for the Candy hugs, and song squares for Billie's blankets and other childrens' one? My reasoning being that if my small child received a blanket with rainbow colours I would use it as an excuse to sing them the song and it would be good to pick out the relevant colours?
Yes, I probably am overthinking this, but Deramores has the balls at £1.69 this week

IAmNotAUserNumber

I will vote for ROYGBIV.

Otherwise in our family you enter a second debate around whether it is 'Orange and Purple and Blue' or 'Purple and Orange and Blue' since both versions seemed to be around in the 70's. grin]

It's definitely orange and purple and blue in my head Salad - although according to google Peggy Lee's version is purple orange and blue.

Number I didn't know that there were knitting shows on Netflix. That may be revenge for all of the cycling stuff my husband watches on various channels.

When it says a posting date of January 28th, does that mean we post them then, or it's the day they need to get to K&P by?
Managed to do a bit last night, hopefully will have more chance to hook this weekend as I'm not working, but want to maximise the number I can send.

chippin dd is almost 11 and has taught herself to knit hats on a circular plastic loom that uses a crochet hook - they look really good.
Glad I'm not the only one planning some secret crochet practice!