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

Just having a nose at peoples lovely squares I've done squares for Candy but am now on hiatus to get DGIL shawl finished by Easter.
Is it Bear who was due to have her baby?

Regarding joining and square size, I find anything between 5.5 and 6.5" ok but small is better than large. Curly edges are not a problem. Ends that have not been sewn in tightly are though.

Gah. You know when you notice a mistake that you made several hours ago, which isn't big enough in the grand scheme of things to warrant unpicking, but you just KNOW it's there? Well, here's one of them.

what mistake? lol I love your squares spindle.

Right in the middle. There's one pin which is 'uncovered' - doesn't have a stitch underneath it. And now I KNOOOWW and it's staring at me.

And thanks! I'm doing some crochet too to get the volume up a bit.

Just checking in, wonderful to see everyone's work! I'm still waiting for more yarn to arrive from k&p and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms
I'm having to work on a completely boring nice stripy blanket for my sister in the meantime yawwwn
Congratulations Bear was Mini bear born today? Cos it's my birthday too

If anyone is looking to buy yarn, Deramores are currently selling it for £1.36 plus 15% off your first order which seems quite good. I am happy buy a couple of extra balls to send to KnottyAndPistey for the donor stash if that's how it works - do I need to PM them?

I started mine again. It's a bit under now but definitely stretches to 6 inches with a gentle pull!

Hope all the poorly huggers are feeling better and congratulations to Bear Lovely news that the blankets are out there working their magic (but wishing no one needed them, as lovely as they are)

Two Willow Squares done from the Jan Eaton book. I loved doing them and they were so quick and easy. I've just started on one in my favourite blue colours, hoping to get it finished today.

Thanks Raptor I'll psych myself up and give the flowers a go this weekend! Keep trying the rows, I only just mastered them a week or two ago. I found counting the stitches back from the end really helped with knowing where to start the row.

Malcolm they are lovely!

I've been lurking for some time now and keep coming back to Candie's Hugs. I've only ever knitted, getting back to it recently, but am willing to give some squares a go if you need some more?

Woolly Hugs has been nominated to win a Stylecraft charity prize!

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KDM5VBB everyone vote!

Done

What colours are those squares, Malcolm?

So after ordering my yarn and hooks last month, I got very confused trying to follow Youtube videos for even the most simple of granny squares. Having never seen one in real life, I just couldn't work out how everything was meant to fit together.

Last night, I went to a beginners granny square class - two hours of hands on tuition, using mercerised cotton and it all fell into place as it was a lot easier to see how the central ring built up. Plus we did each round in a different colour so it was easy to see where you were.

So this afternoon I've attempted a square using the stylecraft yarn. Unfortunately, whilst merrily crocheting round 4 (or is it 5?), I've realised I've put too many treble crochets into a corner on the previous round. At least, I think that's what I've done - but basically that corner sticks out too much.

I can't decide whether to rip it back (about an hours work ) or just give up and start over, as the tension is all over the place anyway.

Witchdancer please join us! It's an ongoing project so squares are always needed.

witchdancer I started knitting after a long break, for just the same reason. I'm finding it a really uplifting and positive thing to do. Hope you take the plunge.

Voted.

Last time WH were entered into a similar comp there was a separate thread in Chat (and they won), so it might be worth doing that for extra traffic...

Thank you - I confess I've spent rather more than I should on some of the beautiful colours! I can't wait for them to arrive so I can get started!

I'm getting so much pleasure from knitting these squares but is it really ok that mine are just plain coloured squares? It's so relaxing to do but I have visions of my parcel being opened and quietly passed to the 'unravel it and re-do it to make it look more exciting' team.

those are absolutely gorgeous Malcolm . I've just started a blanket of African flower square for Little Hugs but that pattern is on my list for the next one.

Thank you, Norman and Laniakea.

Spinderella, the purple square was fushia in the centre, then boysenberry and finally plum (I think that's the right order!). The green one was lime in the centre, then meadow and then spice.

I've just finished off my blue one which is sherbet, turquoise and empire - my favourites!

Drop, it's flipping annoying, isn't it?! I've only just started too and I've had to frog back so much (get me with the lingo!). I think I can see where you mean but I think it looks fine. I might do it over and look on it as practice, whilst furiously muttering under my breath, or I might decide to leave it and hope the wonderful ladies who construct the blankets can work their magic! Hopefully someone who knows more than I do has some more helpful advice!

Armi, one of the magical blanket constructors said recently that they need a mixture of plain and patterned squares otherwise the result would be too busy migraine inducing. All are equally valued and wanted. It's the love and thought that go into them that counts.

In any case, my second square, an attempt at a stripy multi-coloured pattern has turned out rather, erm...interesting and 'unique'. It may be a relief for it to be surrounded and covered over by some non multi-coloured squares!

K&P if you're reading this, I genuinely won't be offended if you don't use it after I send it in!

Well that was a quick break i actually didn't stop crocheting all day and now finished dd's scarf. She is thrilled with it. So now just deciding what colours to buy for my next lot of squares.

To say im addicted is an understatement.

I'm addicted too! Tried crochet for the first time on Wednesday and have been doing it every evening since.

Spent today perfecting the one granny square pattern I've learnt and am now confident enough to order the right wool and start contributing. I've also ordered a book from the library with different patterns, but that may be optimistic.

Does anyone know if one project needs contributions more than the others? I'm enjoying the traffic on here so quite happy to go down the Vibrant Riot route, but would be good to know if there's another project in desperate need of squares before I order my wool...