Zombie and Woolly Hugs. ALL very welcome to join us, come and find out about her legacy of Candy’s Hugs.

[KnottyAndPistey]

We knew her time left with us was short, but the news of Zombie’s death on January 30th was still a sad shock, we send so much love to her family and her many, many friends who love and will miss her greatly, we hold our happy memories of her very dear. Bless her.

Just before Christmas, Zombie donated funds to Woolly Hugs and together we hatched a plan to develop an ongoing project with her, which she loved, 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.

So glad we could establish Candy's Hugs with her and thanks to you wonderful people achieve her ambition of seeing it all well underway before her death. Her legacy of Candy's Hugs will be one of love and strength, of friendship, learning and developing crafting skills, of creativity, of coming together to show compassion, support and give and receive comfort, Such a beautiful inspirational woman. How lucky we were to know her. X

Raising a glass or two to the fabulous Zombie, we go on together

Anyone seeing this project for the first time, wondering about joining in, make this the day you do! This project is ongoing, and a friendlier more supportive bunch of folk you couldn’t wish to meet. 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.

Our previous threads are the first one here and the second one here..

[[https://www.facebook.com/pg/Woolly-Hugs-349028448480855/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1339798112737212
We are keeping a photo album on our Facebook page.]] All welcome to join us over there too.

Zombie was a bright and beautiful woman so we chose a palette to reflect this which we call Vibrant Riot; it is inspired too by a blanket that was made for her as she went through treatment. She had it with her at the end, we were so glad to know it still gave her love, big woolly hugs and comfort.

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 all on this thread are on hand to help talk you through as well. YouTube has lots of tutorials, you WILL find one that suits! :)

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 next collection date is March 11th, then April 22nd. 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. All welcome over there.

Thank you so much xx

Hi, does anyone have links for patterns using different colours (they have to be very easy sa I am very new at this). I am getting fed up with knitting squares of one colour and having to unpick and start again patterns when I have lost count of where I am !!!!

Spiral that's exactly what my mum says! I'm finding patterns online and most use the US terms anyway so I should be Okay.

Getting the tension right is HARD.

C&P from the last thread :)

Question from a newbie... When you say 6" do you mean corner to corner diagonally or along one side? Thanks

LEM hope you're feeling better, Bob seems like a good nurse. Well done on doing a 3 hook pattern! I'm lazy and usually plump for the easier ones.

Bear hope all has gone well today.

I found this somewhere, it might help Bella but you look to be doing well anyway

Hi Rainbow 6 inches along the sides. The construction team prefer them to be slightly smaller rather than a bit big I think

Thanks Norman. I've done a couple of squares but the proportion seemed wrong compared to some of the pics.

Too many rows compared to other 6" rows am I being too tense

That's lovely Rainbow! It doesn't look too big to me. Everyone does things to their own tension. Are you using a 4mm hook? 6-7 rounds of trebles usually makes a 6 inch square for me, which is what you have done.

You lovely lot have made my friend cry, she received today the most beautiful Candy's Hug which she will snuggle under on duvet days and take to hospital with her as she has recently been diagnosed with bowel cancer

to the lot of you and carry on knitting or crocheting

That's reassuring thank you! Yes it's a 4mm hook. I'm new to crochet and doubting myself, but I'm addicted. Dh is pleased I have a hobby which allows me to send off the results so we won't end up with 6,348 blankets as the result of my latest obsession

Worryingly Rainbow (fab square BTW) I've done the same pattern but with an extra row of triples in it (I've just measured it again and it's the right size)

At the moment every square I do seems to come out at the wrong size. Todays pics include square number 28 (from the Jan Eaton book) which is only 5" so I need to add some more rows and what was supposed to be number 43 (4 square granny) but I cocked up and did too many rows so ended up at 7 1/2" so I had to just keep going and add 5 more squares and a border to get it up to 12".

What a palaver!

That tricolour square looks fab LEM, just like the book! I looked at it earlier but it looked a little lot too difficult for me

Such gorgeous squares from everyone. I'm currently working on a c2c little hug

Yes, I've taken a break to do a Little Hug as well - it's a circular one in Vintage palette. But I've nearly finished so at the moment each round takes nearly two hours (!!!) which feels very indulgent compared with squares

Five I've only sent squares for the Chernobyl project so far but it's lovely to know the hugs are helping people for your friend.

Rainbow does your DH realise that all this space you are saving can be used to store more wool?

Raptor they look fab! Was the flower very hard to do? I look at the patterns and get put off, but I'd love to do one. I have the Jan Eaton book too.

Thanks everyone

Baby Bear is safely here. She's having a sleep and I'm enjoying a morphine buzz

😍

Many, many congratulations.

Thanks Raptor, your flower square is amazing and I looked at those squares but they looked like witchcraft to me!

Congratulations

Ohhhh, congratulations on baby bear , how exciting :) enjoy the morphine

Can you take crochet hooks on a plane? I am going to Mexico in June & it would be great to have something to do on the flight

Congratulations Bear - any chance of a pic? No worries if you want to keep her to yourself. Enjoy both her and the morphine!

Awwww, a baby Bear, congratulations.

Congratulations, Bear! Enjoy your Baby Bear snuggles and the morphine.

I tried the Willow Square out of the Jan Eaton book earlier. I did it along with the Bella Coco tutorial at first, because the pattern looked like gobbledygook! However I soon worked out what meant what and by the end, I was doing it all from the pattern.

Took me about 2 1/2 hours to do the square and I've started another one too! Much easier and prettier than the squares I've been doing!

I'm tempted to try the Peony square next, but it's a 3-hook difficulty...!