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

I think Tomato!

i prefer the petrol x

LEM I had a delivery of yarn from a donor for Chernobyl today and while I was opening it I said to the dog that it was just like Christmas It's so exciting to see the colours.

well, I am going to be contrary Spindelina - I thought a blue would be best, but I am liking the violet - you are going to have to go to arbitration, or take a management decision .

I think Turquoise , Spindelina. Or okay, tomato.
Your work is beautiful.

Thanks, Marci.

I'm not making any decisions until I have at the very least empire, claret, plum and spice in my hands to compare. Or I could play it safe (aka easier to integrate into a blanket?) and go for one of the two greens already in the lace.

I'm going to end up knitting several squares at this rate! Then making the lace to suit the knit rather than vice versa.

I'm generally a fan of tomato...which is why I'm running out...

Empire would be good too, its a lovely blue.

DGD (4) has 'helped' me today by winding yarn from the ball of Lime into several 'baby balls of wool' . That's got rid of some of the Lime then, I didn't like it much even before it was snipped into short bits.

DD (also 4) did her first bit of finger knitting today, then did a similar job with scissors on a random ball of purple that Is given her.

my DGS (4) - likes to have his own ball of wool, which then gets dragged around, thrown, but mainly tied around cars and trucks to 'tow' and 'hang' things ......I have to hide the good stuff :)

Some of the colours I have aren't as bright as I expected, but they're very lovely, though I don't think I've ordered colours that look very nice together. So far I've only made single colour squares though I'm feeling more adventurous tonight..... It must be Caturday!

Spindelina, I don't know what to start her on, she's so keen to 'make a blanket and a teddy.' :) Somewhat ambitious.
I helped her crochet a flower out of her ball of Pomegranate, which she has been cherishing for two years now.

(I let her have the Lime, she wasn't being naughty, interestingly she calls it gold)

Marcipex - could you start her on simple french knitting ? Thats what I started on when little. Mind you , you need yards and yards to make a pot or teapot stand...

Spindelena - the red one (tomato?) would really make your lacework pop, which is gorgeous by the way

Bookbook, thanks, that's a good idea.
I'm sure her Tigger would like a scarf in Pomegranate. She loves her ball of wool, it's so funny.

Jux completely agree. Now I've properly investigated my stash, there are definitely some colours that need to be carefully matched to make them work. Case in point - tonight's square in Sherbet, Meadow and Boysenberry. I'm happy with it overall but it needed the Sherbet to lighten it up.

The pattern is the same as yesterday. The library are taking ages to come through with the books I've reserved so have ordered one off Amazon instead - although not the Jan Eaton one, I had a look in Smiths and there was one by Sarah Hazell called something like 150 blocks which I preferred.

What have you done to me?! This time last week I hadn't even picked up a book, now I have wool coming out of my ears!

Book? Hook. Not that I'd picked a book up either mind you.

Actually, question for the construction crew. What do you prefer? Attempta su multi-coloured masterpieces or plain squares?

DH commented earlier that he couldn't stomach a whole blanket in the pattern I'd been doing - what do you need most - plain or patterned?

This is my first multi-coloured square! Your pattern, diamantegal. I can't remember the names of the colours - maybe grass, boysenserry, saffron? I think I'm going to try another using empire, lavender and there's a pale brightish blue whose name I've forgotten.

I'm expecting tomato soon, and have no clue how it will look, it looks a bit orange on my screen.

Re all those repeated patterns your dh isn't too keen on en masse, they'll all be broken up between other squares, won't they, and I've done loads which are very plain. I doubt I'm the only one.

Wow Jux that's so neat!

I've attempted that pattern tonight too (blues and pinks, I don't have any yellow or green yet) but my tension is all over the place, the yarn split a few times, I had to frog back on almost two whole rounds where I'd made a mistake by not reading the instructions properly and I really don't think I've got the hang of the treble crochets into the top of the stitch.

Oh well, practice makes perfect right?

Jux, Tomato is orange, it's the colour of tomato soup rather than actual tomatoes.

Diamante - both really are needed, it's the diversity that makes the blankets so special, colours, textures, patterns, stitches.

Are other colours needed too? I'm waiting for my delivery and was eying up my wool basket last night for something to do. I've got quite a bit of leftover wool left from various projects that I could do into squares but they're not Candy's colours

I can do Potter - is it the same size?