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've just bought more wool - whats wrong with me?!?!?!

You've been caught by the yarn bug. It's a common affliction among knitters and hookers. Unfortunately there's no cure. I'm not supposed to be buying any more wool until I've finished at least some of my projects (I'm terrible for starting and not doing the horrible finishing bits). I still like to go to wool shops and just stroke it and look at the pretty colours!

I'm impressed by your adventurousness with new stitches. That site I liked to earlier has lots of lovely patterns for squares. They come out about 7 inches but could be adapted or have a border put around them. The videos are great. I've made most of the squares but still need to join them. Have you tried bobbles and popcorns? They're easy but look really effective. The week 1 video has a pretty vine pattern.

Have you tried corner to corner? That's a really lovely technique that grows super fast (week 6 I think).

I'm planning on doing a heart bobble square once I've got my yarn...
www.scheepjes.com/en/cals/scheepjes-cals/scheepjes-cal-2016/week-7/#title

Oh Picard, your 'square' made us burst out laughing
You're adding a fair few dummy stitches as you go, I think.

I find crochet much easier to control.
I'm a completely self- taught left hander so not the best advisor, sadly.

Purple it's an actual thing?!? I currently have 13 balls and four on the way BUT they've all been earmarked for specific projects I'm making a purple and silver blanket for my DH DGP, have to hurry up and DGF ended up in hospital this morning after a fall :( also working on Candy Hugs and a ... thing on my knitting needles
Marcipex I've been wondering about left handed working, I can't imagine how difficult that must be, especially self taught. So much respect!

I made up the name but it's well known that generally us knitters and hookers can't stop buying wool.

PurpleDaisies I love my stash. New yarn is like new stationery. Unsullied by my attempts.

Morning all

Catching up as always :)

Beautiful squares on here, beauties arriving too, thank you everyone Back with names in a bit xx

Ohb0llocks - Welcome, crack on, get to Youtube!

stephiehelen - You are on the list for wool, hopefully something soon lovely, thank you x

PurpleDaisies - Welcome, just jump right in!

Zombielamb - What a vibrant riot, right there!

Picard Love the frilly collar, wear it, today, with PRIDE!

Off to PMs, may be a while, there is a woolly mountain

Yay - just about to pack this lot up and send them with love. All the more pertinent for me as I recommended wooly hugs to my friend, whose best friend has terminal cancer and you have kindly agreed to make her a blanket. Bugger, i think i might have a bit of dust in my eye 💜

forgot the puc - again!

LEM those are looking good.

Vibrant Riot is a superb palette to work with.

I posted my first parcel of woolly squares earlier this week.

I'm currently working on a selection of Chernobyl squares but the pull of Candy's hugs is so strong that I've just been online and ordered a wonderfully colourful selection of yarn.

Once I've used up my Chernobyl colours I'll start again on Candy's hugs.

I hope that, despite her very poorly condition, Candy has some understanding of how she has touched and inspired so many of us to get involved in a project in her name.

K&P - out of interest do you both hold down full time jobs??

At this rate Woolly Hugs must be taking over your lives!!!

Just posted my first fews squares :)
I hope theyre ok :)

I'd love to help with this but can't find a local stockist of the right wool. Will search online, but recommendations welcome! Need to dust off my knitting skills too!

Wool warehouse is brilliant banderchang.

Great, thank you! Ordered three colours plus needles, so will practice on old wool and different size needles in the meantime.

This is such a lovely project for such a great cause.

They're normally very quick with delivery too. Happy knitting.

Well, that was a palava! We walked to the local post office church and it was shut So we went for a cup of coffee in the artisan poncey coffee shop. This stuff is loke crack cocaine and i have subsequently bought a load of stuff i don't need! although i did buy a crochet magazine with a unicorn tape measure And finally found a post office that hadn't closed down to post my squares. Still have a few balls of wool left, are you still accepting squares for Candy's hugs? if so I'll keep on hooking.

Afternoon hookers and clickers!

We've had an eventful morning in a and e. So sick of the sight of that place right now- 😆😅😂

Anyhoo...The Zombie is on hold for a few days while we try to fix together about a shitload zillion squares! DH is on the joining as...erm...my arm is in a sling. I've pushed the sofa righr up to the tv, because the Bad Girls boxsets are mandatory for quick healing from clutzy sod syndrome

LEM - Candy's Hugs is an ongoing project so even if one posting deadline has passed there will be another.

Keep on hooking!!!

Is this square going to be acceptable? Two strands of the right wool, knitted together on 4mm needles. It's a bit thicker than a single thread square, but no thicker than my crocheted granny squares are.

I just like the effect! But I don't want to cause a problem for the people who join the squares together.

Chipping the colours I got from a donor were Lavender and Boysenberry. I've started on a couple of squares from the boysenberry and love the way it just forms up and the shade of it. I'm very thankful to the donor as I cant really afford to get as much wool as I'd like so having a kind someone donate it makes a huge difference xx

Lucien we are joining together squares of different thicknesses atm and we haven't had an issue with it yet...😀

Well, I don't know what happened to me yesterday, I spent all day dozing. Some kind of bug I guess, but I've picked up my hook again today.

Thanks again MrsH and Chipping, it's a relief to know I didn't render my granny square unusable by adding that extra row and making a front and back.
starting I know that I've been very fortunate with the timing of my week off, and I'm pleased that I can go back to work next week and have an idea what I'm trying to do instead of figuring it out little by little of an evening. I would like to find a class too, when I do rows something is going wrong, but I've no idea what exactly.

This really has been a nice way to spend a week off, thank you to Zombie and K&P for that.

The first picture is what I did last Friday and Saturday, and the second is what I've done since. I hope this gives hope to anyone currently creating the wobbly art as shown in the first picture

POP. What the fuckityfuck did you do this time?!

Is DH a crocheter or is this going to be one hell of a learning curve for him?

LEM. Sorry to hear about your friend's friend 😢💐
Well done for persisting & finding an open post office! 😬 >> the Unicorn measuring tape! The Chernobyl project needs squares, quite a lot of squares...😳

Lucien. I can't answer for K&P re the two strands, but I can't see why not? I was just wondering though, have you cast on enough stitches? It looks quite small, I need about 35 in this yarn for a plain square.

CraftyGirl be lovely to see those knit up together, I haven't got either of them yet did my Fusia still hasn't arrived at the shop! Our ££ donors are every bit as important as the crafters.