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

Congratulations Nerr what a cutie!

Welcome back Pistey hope you had a grand time

I agree about youtube bookbook, I don't think I'd ever have worked out crochet without it. Just today I've done a hexagonal African flower courtesy of Bella Coco (I have a little friend who wants a Heidi Bears cuddly toy for her November birthday so I was practising) and then made it up into a square (which was far more faffy than the flower bit) for my woolly hugs pile

Raptor I love those colours. I'd never think to put them together.

Do you have instructions for turning haxagons into squares? I'm making a lace six-pointed star at the moment, and I'm planning to attach it to a plain knitted square. But it would be great to be able to attach it to a crochet hexagon then make it up to a square.

Thanks Spindelina, I have to say, I'm running low on colours ATM so I'm in the position of making do with what I've got, so it's more luck than judgement . I took a leaf out of bookbook's book this month and have been doing sets of 4 of the same colour schemes (so I have another 3 of this set to go).

The instructions I used are here:

It follows straight on from Bella Coco's african flower videos, admittedly mine looked nowhere near as neat as hers but they sorted themselves out once I'd put the border round it to get it up to 6".

Morning!
Raptorina - thats lovely! - . She is good !
I was out last night, and got home late, so I am still plodding on with my 12" - the last few rounds are taking forever.
Spin -I just had a quick google ( oh the wonders!) - and found this on ravelry - you may well have done the same...
www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tutorial-for-turning-a-hexagon-into-a-square

Morning
Lovely square Raptor it might be a while before I attempt anything that fancy!

I've started a series of 4 squares using 4 main colours, these are the first 2.
I would've been further on but when DD saw me making the flowers she asked if I could make some for her, then DS wanted some in blue!

Thought you lot would appreciate the beautiful blanket I got in the post from my friend this morning (and the baby pic).

I'm still managing to get some squares done here and there when the toddler's at nursery.

Lovely blanket and lovely baby, Nerr.

RR I do like your flowers. Very pretty.

book, Raptor thanks for those links. My crochet hexagon is going to need to be about 10" across, which is bigger than in either of those tutorials. What I really need is a generic instruction set. Ultimately, I would like to attach the lace to the hexagon as I make the hexagon (I can pull loops through holes in the lace at appropriate points), but I think I might just experiment by making a big multicolour hexagon and then have a go at squaring it off and see what happens - if it works I'll send it in as a square in its own right. As long as I can keep it flat, the worst that happens is that I need to create more peskies to fill in little bits here and there, right?

Nerr what a beautiful blanket! That'll be treasured forever I'm sure!

RR and Raptorina I love those squares!

I've now got, I think, 17 6" squares done using donated yarn and there's still loads left to work with.
Mother in law has left the building so I can crochet to my heart's content. Just need to get the spare room cleaned and fresh bedding put on for this weekend's house guest, our oldest son's lovely flatmate from uni is staying. They've stayed on campus to make use of the library with the end of year coming up but he's home anyway at weekends to work his part time job and it's not right that she spends Easter weekend alone so an extra egg has been bought.

Afternoon!
I have finally finished my 12" can go and choose some new colours. This is Spice/Petrol/Violet /Grass Green. for a slightly vibrant riot.
DoubleR - love those flowers
Spin - you do like to take the tricky unknown road!
Nerr - baby and blanket both gorgeous. Make the most of the placid times!
Madison - a big sigh of relief? you probably won't know the new ones are there, apart from an empty fridge

That looks great book I've been doing a few one colour squares but fancy doing something with more variety in it next (as in, when I've posted this ).

The fridge has just been well and truly stocked today although I reckon I'll be doing a top up shop on Monday I like to see people eat well though, my mother in law hardly eats a thing when she's here and it worries me, she's got a very poor diet.

Evening!
Madison I'm a rather enthusiastic eater - it worries me when people don't like food - or that they 'pick' at it.
I have gone to two colours for the next set - some of the designs I have been looking at seem to work better with two. So I am doing Lipstick and Saffron for this bunch. Just need to decide on the next design now
I will be going back to single colour squares soon- I just have to finish my baby jacket, and then will knit some

So much for a simple hexagon.

My basic problem is that my pregnancy insomnia is manifesting itself as an irresistible desire to do complicated things with wool in the early hours of the morning.

you just like complicated Spin :) - great colour combo - what are the three pinks- I am guessing Magenta and Pomegranate , is the other Plum?

Magenta's right - the other two are boysenberry and fuchsia. Had to get my pegs out for that! DD has my pomegranate at the moment.

Lovely squares everyone. Raptor I saw some of yours on FB today they look fab!

Nerr your baby is just gorgeous! I'm getting broody between this thread and Chernobyl - lots of lovely squishy baby pictures

I am having a little hug dilemma. I thought I would need 2 balls of wool to finish my little hug but if I use it all it's going to be massive! It's currently 22 inches and I'm nearly half way through one ball. I'm also going to add a border so it will end up 25-26 inches square. But it looks a bit smallish. Only suitable for a baby not a toddler or bigger.

I don't know whether to make two the same size, make one the smallest size requirement of 18 inch square and one bigger, or make one huge one. I also want to use up all the wool. It was expensive and I don't want to be left with a bit that's not enough to make anything useful. It's a colour changing one and it's not going to be easy to match to a different kind of yarn.

This is my first little hug so any advice would be appreciated!

Oops I meant to add a picture...

I know what you mean Norm - the last one I did squeaked in at 18" x 18" and it looked tiny. I am doing a bigger one now , and was aiming for maybe 26 in the c2c ", and then I was going to add a border until it looked right..... Could you pm K&P, and ask their advice as which size is best?

Thanks book I'll do that. I figure they need all sizes, the very small ones are probably used in neonatal I'll ask K&P what sizes they need most

More beautiful squares!
Nerr, that blanket is nearly as lovely as your baby - but not quite!

I've made a thing when I had no pattern and wasn't really paying attention, which is 9-sided, and for the life of me, I can't make it into a square! I've tried graduating from dtr, to tr, to htr, to dc in many variations, but have failed miserably. I shall either give up on it, which means another poor friend or family member will be given a small example of my craft (there are enough examples swinging from people's driving mirrors already) or let the cats have it.

I am currently trying to make a cardi for dd, from a Drops pattern. It's quite hard.

Jux - could you make a very plain square, and stitch it on?
I am nearly finished number 4 of my colour set, but have had a complete round of working into the back loop ( new to me) . Its been slow work .....

Morning!
I decided to get my 4th square finished this morning after breakfast. I do like to start off a new idea when I sit down in the afternoon.
so Saffron /Lipstick set, somewhat diverse sizes !

Thanks Norm I love seeing them all on facebook

I love that yarn, the colour change is done very well (I keep thinking about trying the multicoloured stuff out)

In the post today, including my first attempts at crochet.

Good idea, book. I'll do that, a12", maybe c2c.

Claire those are lovely! Is that really your first brush with crochet? They're fab!