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

P.S. @BigApple11 and @DoubleR - was a KT meet up a serious suggestion? I'm a a bit further up the KT postcode numbers than you (near the river and palace!) but would be up for a glass of wine communal crochet and knitting session.

Those are lovely Malcolm - that pattern is next on my list from the Jan Eaton book.

I am finding this really addictive!

Well I've done some beginners granny squares, in different colours - I mean each square is a different colour, not squares of mixed colours. It's nice wool to work with, isn't it? Feels nice.

So when do we have to have them done by?

diamantegirl I'm deliberately choosing colours which appear in various projects (there's a significant overlap between Candy's and Kinship, for example, and any of those colours can also be used for Chernobyl) and I'll pass them to K&P with notes accordingly. There's size preferences for some projects and some patterns particularly chosen for one over another but when it's just a nice pattern I thought would hook up well it's going in my general pile.

Can anyone help a poor stupid hooker? I bought the book, used the hook size and yarn type, followed the pattern and made ... a hat. Where have I gone wrong??

It's very hard to tell from the photo on my crappy phone screen, but is there any chance you're using US crochet stitches? The Jan Eaton book is in UK terminology. A UK treble = a US double, which might explain your hat

Malcolm I was hoping I'd be able to copy. But out of those, the only one I have is turquoise! More woolly wool required. Did someone say 15% off for new customers...?

Spindelina, I've got a massive order for more as well! Should arrive next week. Yesterday DH walked past my storage bags and said "HOW much wool?!" Oops!!!

Picard, did you count your trebles at the end of each round? Also are you yarning over as much as you should? I kept forgetting to yarn over when I did my first square and it started looking suspiciously like yours...!

Picards 😬😬😬. Some Dolly will be very happy if you bind that off & make a hat! I'm a crochet newbie, but I think it looks like you've gone wrong from the beginning, very centre hole is rather large. I agree with Malcom that you're possibly using the wrong US/UK stitches 😕 and the whole yarning over thing. I'm sticking to tutorials for it now because it's easier & you can see what it's meant to look like. Though, a general, 'looking right' is that squares are flat - so if you start to get an incline, something's 'not quite right' 😂 (My first flower looked like a Spirograph drawing, I wasn't going into the centre - even though I thought I was! Took bloody ages to work out WTF I was doing wrong!)

Picard I think your first round, the treble crochets into the centre, was correct.
Then I think you have made the stitches for the lace cross part of the pattern, and not made the four corners of the square.
So it's all gathered into a dome.

That's what it looks like anyway.

Don't be downhearted, just start again. My first efforts were just lumps of yarn all knotted together. I wasn't making the turning chains [ grin]

Morning!

I'm currently putting a refugee blanket together, and I can reassure you that 6.5 or 7 inches usually stretches to join to a 12 inch square. If it didn't, it would take me liturally minutes to put a simple tc border around it so it would fit.

I took a break from The Zombie because my friend's baby came early, and I've been making my first ctc baby blanket!

Pop, that's gorgeous! Love it. I agree about the border around a 7" square taking ages, I did one of mine to take it up to 12" and it took so long! Never again!!!

Oops, read that wrong, Pop. I see it would take you minutes!!!

I have a long, long way to go....! 😂

MrsD. Are you starting to feel any better? I hope your Mum was able to come & look after you (and BabyD) 💐

LEM. How are you feeling now? I bet Bob is loving the extra downtime!

Neome. How's your Mum doing? 💐

FiveGMID. I'm glad your friend loves her Woolly Hug 😊💐

But seriously. FUCK OFF CANCER.

Welcome to all New Recruits. It's lovely to have people learning or restarting, to knit or crochet. Zombie will be looking down, rightly, quite impressed with what she (& K&P) have inspired people to do. (It's an ongoing project, so everyone can join in & it doesn't matter if their squares aren't perfect, as long as they're done with Hugs in them! Preferably 6" or 12" bang on, but the amazing Construction Crew do wonders at making them all fit. It's easier if they're a little under, rather than a little over, as they can stretch or add a bit more easily than making a bigger one fit.

7till4. How are you getting on with the Bamboo needles? I hope you love them as much as I do. It's fun playing with loads of colours! I'm working on a few things and doing stripes on one. I'm somewhat of a messy knitter with balls of wool everywhere (attached to,the knitting) - the other day I looked like a fly caught in a very colourful spiders web, the neighbour knocked on the window to ask a favour and just about wet herself laughing at me trying to escape from it! 😂

KnittingNell. How are you getting on?

Diamantegal. I, too, imagine that squares for Chernobyl will be 'the most urgently needed' as there is a deadline for a million (well, 70 odd) blankets 😳 However, do whatever you want to do squares for, the Hugs are needed by all of the recipients. Sadly. I get torn between them all so I have several on the go.

Poulter. You are going to do a whole blanket 'if K&P don't mind?! I should imagine they'll be thrilled to get a whole blanket! 😊

Rainbow. I love your square 🤣 At your DH just being happy your squares are being sent off rather than you keeping 76 billion blankets

I think the solution for anyone suffering from their DH complaining they have too much wool is to agree with them and tell them that they'll teach them to knit or crochet to help reduce the stash. Either we will get more squares or they'll just shut up, from fear you'll actually make them learn 😂🤣

I hope all of you doing Little Hugs & shawls etc are going to post pictures too! 😊

Norman. Crochet flowers are pretty easy if you follow a tutorial. My first one, as I said, looked like a Spirograph drawing, but once I realised my mistake it was quick & easy to make pretty flowers.

Bearfrills. How are you & BabyBear? 💐

MyNameIsJane. If it means a lot to you to have your & your friends squares on the same blanket, one of you should send your squares to the other & send them in together with a note.

Madison. I love your squares.

'It's snowing. There's only one thing to do'. I wish! I'm drowning in paperwork & I have to evict some dust bunnies and this afternoon I'll be sitting through yet another concert feigning delight - I'm SO tempted to take my crochet, but I don't want to embarrass the small person & it seems a bit rude that I'm not giving the concert 100% of my attention. I won't be in my head, but outwardly I should look as if I am! 😫🤣. How was your visit to the Tea Shop? We have loads around here, but none of them are great, sadly.

Armi. Yes yes yes...plain squares are good, very good 😁 There needs to be a bit of calm in amongst the busy squares or it's simply 'too much'.😳

DropZoneOne. I know what you've been watching 😁😁

One thing I'm loving about crochet is that it's SO much more forgiving than knitting. I got up the other morning & realised I'd done 3 trebles where I should have only done two a few rows earlier. I snipped the wool, wove the ends in very firmly & you couldn't tell the difference! I also love that when crocheting in the round it's SO easy to frog, unlike knitting.

BigApple. 💐 Happy Belated Birthday! 🍹🍸🍫🍰💐

Pop. That'll make a nice change from white/pastels! Is the baby very early? Are both your friend & the baby ok?

I'm not at all surprised you have socks that colour - I just hope you don't wear them with shoes like that 🤣😂🤣

How are you feeling now? How's your arm?

How did DH get on with constructing the blanket? Have you taken over now or are you working on another one?

I have been doing so much crochet I'm having to cover my finger! The only awkward way I can hold my yarn is rubbing my finger and making it feel sore/sensitive

I have tried to change my hold/grip but keep coming back to the same awkward position

Apologies for posting something that a first glance may appear to be something other than a finger

Vitty

I'm halfway thru the willow square from the Jan Eaton book.

Although it doesn't say on the instructions, it involves A LOT of swearing I've had to frog the same round at least 4 times but I will conquer it!

Raptor, it is easy, once you've done it a few times.

I used this tutorial the first time I attempted it, having someone show me what to do was so much easier than trying to work it out from a book!

Vitty

I'm working on my flower...

My arm feels fine actually- and I'm sure the crochet has been helping!

The baby was about a month early- mom and baby are fine, so no worries there.

DH and I have put aside most of the day to hopefully finish constructing the blanket. All exciting!

I'm attempting my first ctc pixel crochet square today, in Candy colors...watch this space...

Pop - you are a crochet machine! I am in awe of your talents/productivity!

Vitty I'm really not all that...I just love color! But thank you 😀