Zombie and Woolly Hugs. Please join us, newcomers very welcome. Come and find out about Candy's Hugs.

[KnottyAndPistey]

Her legacy of Candy's Hugs will be one of love and strength, of coming together to show compassion, support and give and receive comfort.

Seven blankets already with women on the rocky road of cancer treatment in Candy's name. Love in every stitch we say and it really is true. Together we go on, Candy is with us every step.

For anyone joining us, and please do, this is an ongoing project, just jump right in, this explains what we are doing and all crafting info. Thank you EVERYONE! x

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.

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.. and third 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 to give hugs and comfort 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

Am loving the pictures of all the creations. I'm sitting here with withdrawal symptoms -placed an order for more yarn last week and it's still not processed. Website says allow up to 10 days for delivery, but have ordered from the same place before and it's always arrived the next day. Aaarrrggghhh, I've no crochet to do (alas, no more excuses for the housework)

Hello loves, don't know if anyone saw the update on Facebook last night, but three more Candy's Hugs are away, that means now 10 beautiful women undergoing cancer treatment are feeling warmth and comfort and love from us all, Candy too, in every stitch.

This is a very good thing you all do here. Thank you xxxx

92 posts to catch up on, may be a while!

Posted catmadcaz's Gin picture up already on Twitter, was loved by MNHQ and Debbie Bliss!

So glad baby Bear is doing well hope she goes from strength to strength.

FWIW, we ran into Victoria Beckham and one of her boys when we were skiing, we passed each other in a shop doorway, I didn't even notice initially but my son did, she had a look of LEM's dog about her then

Loving the frilly square marci some child will love that, and don't forget our beautiful Chernobyl children have all gone through cancer treatment, and may very well do so again, so a perfect fit really.

Welcome marriednotdead jump right in, the lovely folk in here will help you enormously

SevenTillFour Oh I love that!!!!! How clever

This is such a lovely corner of MN, the best of the nest, never fail to be uplifted. You are all bloody wonderful.Thank you xxxx

I have nine rowers coming to stay from tomorrow, so apologies if I don't make it here, last year, I did have quiet times in the day, banking on that again. If anyone is in London on Saturday from 3.30pm, it is Women's Head of the River Race, think there are about 300 crews (eights) DD is in Edinburgh's first eight and they are seeded 13. Its the Boat race in reverse, so from Barnes ish down to Putney. Anyhow, my home will be invaded, so best crack on with catering plans and sorting sleeping arrangements!

Ooh good luck DD for WeHoRR!

Hope you've stocked up on industrial quantities of pasta and Soreen ...

My local wool shop lady showed me a bamboo(?) crochet hook and oh dear I bought it. It's really nice, once you get used to it - doesn't take long - very light.

Oh good luck with the race, K&P. Hope they win! Is it likely to be on the News? I'm from that neck of the woods, Wimbledonish, Barnes and so on. My heart warms when I hear about the area; I miss it a great deal.

Thanks all re the wool suggestions, will keep the leftovers and use up for refugee squares I think.
Jux, am still a crochet virgin ( though that may change after Thursday ! ) but the bamboo knitting needles I bought recently are great, am sure I knit faster with them somehow.

Good luck for your daughter's race, and your houseful of 'wet bobs' : hope there is cause for champagne as well as pasta and malt loaf ! 🍾🍾

Thanks Witch it was only about 15 minutes as luckily DM always has DN on Tuesday and they stay close to home. But it was a bit stressful as she thought to start with DF had gone to work with the only spare key.

I am going to do more squares I think. I'd like to knit a baby blanket with the tomato, spice and claret as the firey combination is inspiring me but dont know anyone who is pg

Evening! I'm still working on Chernobyl squares at the mo, but I want to do this one in Candy's Hugs colours once I'm done.

I just need to replace the Pale Rose and the Raspberry - the others are in the Vibrant Riot palette.

I was thinking maybe Lavender for the Rose and Fuchsia for the Raspberry but does anyone else have any ideas?

I could go really bright as an alternative!

Just popping on to say good luck to your DD K or P ? :)
Squares as always are wonderful. I am going to knit one tomorrow before I go back to do another Chernobyl

Thank you all for a lovely welcome, I had to go to work so I've not been around, but I did manage to do another wonky characterful, made with love square. Spice in stocking stitch, lime moss stitch (needs more practice!) and double rib boysenberry. I shall get these in the post tomorrow.
I love to see all your squares, the spirals fascinate me, its only a matter of time...

I thought I'd never enjoy crotchet as much as knitting but I may well be converted (even though I have serious crotchet cramp in my fingers!)

I know what you mean Witch , but I must admit, I have cast on a square late last night to knit. I'm missing the knitting. I find crotchet is quick, but if I do any sort of pattern ( other than granny and c2c) I need to concentrate much harder , and go wrong much more often!

I prefer crochet, Witch - there's usually only one stitch to drop at a time! I use a hoot with a thick handle which is less cramping than a narrow one. Clover is the make I like.

I'm an intermittently enthusiastic but crap plain knitter & absolutely hate making up garments !

I found a partially-knitted moss-stitch scarf amongst my stash the other evening - planning to finish it then donate it...

A hook FFS! What's a crochet hoot???

It's not my hand that the hook is in, it's my left hand first finger from holding it to tension the wool . I suspect it's because I don't usually hold it like that for something like 6 hours!

Mmmm crotchet hoot? Maybe a little noise that is made after every round?

that s why I crotchet as I knit Witch - I couldn't control the tension , and my fingers were not used to keeping that position . I now do it as knitting. DD does hers by hooking very close to the forefinger, no gap between her fingers , which seems to work too!

How do you hold the wool, Witch? At first I was hooking my finger over it, so it was actually being held by the first finger of my left hand. That gave me cramp, though it's still how I start things off.

Once I'm going, I have to very consciously change position, and wrap the wool a few times round the other fingers of my left hand (which is what keeps the tension), with it just going round my first finger to steer it. The photo shows it with my headphones, which is the most wool-like thing I have to hand. The number of times I wrapped it round my other fingers was just trial and error to find which configuration held it with the right tension.

I think a crotchet hoot is the whoop of joy on completion - applies to knitting too!
Spindelina how do you manage not to get tangled? that looks very complicated!

I was going around my little finger, then up and over my pointing finger, which is raised a little to keep tension. I'll have to try some other ways - why did I not think of that!

Morning!

I've been out and about so haven't checked in much, loving all the squares Malcolm that really is stunning!

Here are some of my recent efforts, the sunflower from last week and a couple more from the 200 squares book (none of which ended up even close to 6 inches - the gothic square took a lot of frogging to get it up to size and I had to fudge the last couple of rounds to keep them square).

I ordered some more wool today (whoops!) I 'needed' some lighter colours as I seem to have picked a lot of darker blues and purples this month.

Knitting I think it looks worse because it's not wool so it's not tight! It's just wrapped round my middle, ring and little fingers a couple of times.

Witch I think you need to sort of spread the work of keeping the tension over your other fingers, if that makes sense. If one finger does all the work, it's going to get sore.

Raptor, they are lovely. I particularly like the blue and yellow one - I'm doing similar colours at the moment. And it's important to have a good selection of colours I've got them all.

Just seen my contribution on FB

Witch this is how I hold my yarn & seem to have no cramp in that hand.

The yarn goes from the ball around my little finger, across the palm & over the index finger which can be raised or lowered to adjust the tension.

If I need to hold the work I use the middle finger and thumb as shown.

Afternoon!
I have made my first crotchet square with a written pattern, not a tutorial. It was a baptism of me ending up knowing what it should look like from the picture , and very slightly winging it, as I must have made some fundamental error early on...... It should have another couple of rounds in sherbet too, but it had reached 6" so decided to leave it at that. I had knitted a simple texture stripe this morning, as my brain wasn't in gear. And now wool has arrived for the Zombie woolly hug, so working out what to do for that :)
That is an exceedingly elegant little finger there Furry !