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

I seem to think its something like March early -ish ikiboo. I have sent in the first lot of mine, but will post another few this week. I have Chernobyl one on the go at the moment.
I have just watched the Bella Coco tutorial for making a granny square, so may have a go at that next! :)

I tried Bella, I am now going for private lessons

is the 28th the deadline for these? i thought that was when we could start posting them?

LEM it's the first deadline, so that's the last posting day, but we can send sooner if we are ready to I'm not .But as book said, there's a second sometime in March.
DS3 woke at some ungodly hour this morning, well 6.15, which he is old enough to know better. So, coffee drank, MN checked. Nothing for it, but to get to making those squares now

Finished another 12" square this morning. It was only going to be three colours, but I used tomato instead of spice by mistake. I then felt it ended a bit of spice to give it some zombie zing. 😀
Going to try a square from that square a week site linked to before trouble is, which one? Decisions decisions.

Where is popgoesthefuckingweasle?

LEM it's an ongoing project, so you will be in time :)

Morning all, I've got a stack of squares to send off for Candy's Hugs this week. There'll be things for the refugee project and Tunnocks in the parcel too, then I'll start on Chernobyl.

Bloody hell, it was all going so well, not having knitted for 104 years. Now I've dropped a stitch & sort of tried to pick it up but it hasn't worked & now I've got a hole. Do I just undo everything or can someone fly out to Germany & help me?

Oh no fiderer that's really annoying - think you have to unravel back to just beyond the dropped stitch. Only to be expected though if you've not knitted for 104 years!
captainbraandpants - those colours are lovely.
I'm currently at work and itching to get home to start my next square - I feel blue coming on....

I tried that but I think I just made it worse

Maybe the recipient could just squint Like me

Embroider a flower over it, cleverly catching the column before it runs any further?

This is why I prefer crochet.

Would fly over but I'm a long way from an airport, soz.

Embroider? You loon. I'm struggling to get knitting needles working in some form of coordinated movement.

Send it to me Fid. I can either sort out the dropped stitch or crochet a flower and cover the hole.

Thanks Woolly I'll finish it & if it looks rotten I'll be in touch.

Fids - I had a counting fail doing a single off-centre cable for a project last year. Several eight-row repeats and one ten-row

It jarred.

So I stitched a pretty button in the too-long bit of the cable and suddenly it looked deliberate.

Dear heavens MrsH are you speaking in code?

I knew know to needle & hook in a past life, now I'm laboriously "Knit one, knit the next one ..." ad infinitum - well 6 inches anyway.

Think I need gin.

I can cast on and knit okay, it's the casting off. I find casting off absolutely nerve-wracking, I'd be grateful if anyone has any tips for that.

Marci I've cast on and got half way through knitting my second ever thing (a 6" tomato square) so I'll pick up any hints you get given too!

Afternoon!
I have completed a very wonky granny square ! :) Not for Candy Hugs, as I was using some random DK I had ( hope to put it to use in the refugee appeal).
Now - casting off you say? Best tip is try to keep the stitches relatively loose, so it is easier to get the needle through the gap . I will see if I can take some pictures later if it would help? ( I have a 12" square I am hoping to finish tonight)

Marci try going up a half size just for casting off. So your "empty" needle at the start of your cast off row is a half size bigger than the needle with the stitches on. This may help to avoid the stitches being too tight and giving the banana effect to the cast off edge

Thank you bookbook I'll try looser. I've learnt three different cast-ons now, but there doesn't seem to be any other cast-offs. I did it once with a crochet hook but my hands shook just as much!

Woollybackswife , thank you. I can see that could help, though at the moment I'm using 2.5 dpns and haven't any larger.
But I'll bear your tip in mind for next time.
I'm using sock yarns and dpns to make things for the Spring Craft Sale.

Decoded:

I cocked up. It looked annoying. I put something over the cock-up. It looked much better.

Fids you are not alone I was on my casting off row when I looked back and saw I had a dropped stitch, and it was about two thirds down the square ! I tried to pick it up but couldnt carry it on, so I had to unpick back until the square was only 2 ins !!! ( anything been nibbling your knitting ! )