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

Book and Amethyst thank you for your kind words. I find the repetition of hooking relaxing and it helps me process things through. Your right Amethyst the colours really are uplifting x

Vitty those squares! I saw them out of the corner of my eye and thought they were lanterns with candle light behind them!

Pterodore, lovely squares. I particularly like the lilac, top right. Do you have a pattern you can link to?

LEM book Lania Yiayoula everyone, the blankets are going to be really fabulous. You're all so clever, and I'm learning so much, and getting better myself too! Thank you. It's a long time since I felt like this. Really, thank you all.

Jux. thank you ! xx💐

These are mine so far. Ends not sewn in though. I took on board that some plain ones help break it up. I agree, it's so calming and knowing that it's such a fantastic cause keeps you going. I really want to do mandala ones but I can't get my head round them.
Beautiful work everyone!

Crafty, I agree about this being such a wonderful community. I feel privileged to be able to play a very small part.

I too find that crocheting keeps my mind occupied and helps me to relax. Seeing the squares grow and matching colours brings me real joy. I'm glad you find that too.

I love all of the squares on here! I'm off to do some for Chernobyl for a bit but am going to come back to do some more Candy's Hugs as soon as that's done. Will keep looking at all the photos on this thread for inspiration!

OhWhatFuckery I absolutely love the square just to the right of centre at the front, with the red (lipstick?) border and sherbert. It's simply stunning.

Jux - Thank you! Making squares for Wooly Hugs for the various projects has given me something positive to focus on during some turbulent personal times lately.

Thank you to everyone on here for being so encouraging. I also love seeing all the different patterns, it is pushing me to try new stitches.

OhWhat - i made the Marigold pattern (that has been linked somewhere)I found writing the pattern out really helped me, particularly as I wrote it out in U.K. rather than US terms

Evening all

I had a lovely knit and natter session in my local town last Saturday and accidentally uncovered a fellow MN'er

Anyway looking forward to going back there for my crochet lesson on Thursday, in the meantime I have on the go a jumper for godson, squares for Candy and 12" squares for Chernobyl, all bery palin knitting but just cracking on at the moment

Loving everyone's squares and seven those letters are perfect

I think tonight's square will be lizard lattice in pomegranate. It should look like this when it's done

Love that pattern WitchDancer

Two heart squares completed here and another square on the go

It's one of my favourites, so easy to do and looks great

So many lovely squares on here. I agree with what others have said about what a lovely community we have in this little corner of Mumsnet.

Five I found a local MN'er on another thread a while ago. It turned out that she lived around the corner from me until we moved and I used to walk past her house when walking my son to and from school.

ooh - Witch - I may pinch use that pattern - I'm doing Chernobyl ones at the mo - just about to cast on a 12".

Of course Book. There's loads of crotchet patterns on here but not many knitting so please do pinch any that I post up

Thank you!

Been taking a break for a few days from hooking but seeing all the squares people have made has inspired me to start again x

Ta-da!

That was fast!

I just love the single-colour squares with interesting textures. I feel they're like a hidden treasure. All quiet and unassuming in the big picture, but rich storytelling up close.

I was worried they were too plain after seeing all the gorgeous crotchet squares

That looks good Witch - my next one I think, for Chernobyl.
Thats a lovely thought MrsH I shall carry on....:)

My first three - the edges are a bit wonky in places

I went for slightly random colour-changes with the front two!

They're great colours Furry, in particular the top one

Thanks - boysenberry & petrol I think!

Oh wow, lots of beautiful squares!

I've been sticking with single colours over the weekend, solid and basic granny squares to get through my stash, and to help balance out all the beautiful patterns everyone else is managing.

My Jan Eaton book was waiting for me when I got home from work - I love Amazon Prime! So I had a flick through and decided to try the Sunshine Lace - I didn't have a sunshine colour though so it's in Fuschia. I think it's the first of my squares to be spot on the 6" too!

Has anyone found any online video tutorials for working crochet in rows? Everything I've learnt so far has been in rounds, but there are some patterns I like but I just can't visualise how it's meant to get started.

Wonky isn't in the dictionary on this thread Furry - they are great!
DropZone Look up Bella Coco waffle square , and the C2C tutorials . She has been very good for me as a newbie crotcheter :)