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

Thanks, Witch. Lovely square , diamantegal - truly vibrant riot !

worth it though diamante it looks amazing! i am just starting a 12"c2c its quite nuce as once you are in the flow you don't have to follow a pattern.

beginning to fret about postage - did someone say it was better to post in the jiffy bags than pack up one parcel? although half are for chernobyl so may be separate destinations.

It wouldn't let me vote again :(

diamante that's lovely I've only done plain granny squares for a 12" square so far!

Hi bookbook
Thank you for the pm.
There are no Boyes down our way in Devon, and Hobbycraft here don't stock SSDK.
Thank goodness for our proper shop.

✅ I have voted approximately 76 billion times. I hope we win!!

Scallion. Hmm. I think the best thing is lots of practice, if you PM me your address, I'll send you mine... 😂 Crochet - with the tutorials it's so much easier! For the price of a hook you might as well give it a go! (The Pony hook is fine, the Clover Amour hook is lovely!). Why did you wind the wool into new balls? I don't bother with Stylecraft.

Witch. Lovely Owl 😊

bookbook. 😇 I am being good too, thanks to you! I'm seeing it as a challenge to behave as well as you are!! 😇

Vitty. Can we have a pic now it has its border?

Stephiehelen one online shop had it at £1.39 a ball recently. My local wool shop it's £2.10.

Wherever you buy it, it's a steal compared to the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino blend I was just looking at £8.50 a ball. Eek.

Marcipex. My local (and only, for miles) stocks it, but they don't stock any of the wools for the individual blankets unfortunately, so I'm having to take a punt on them online. Apparently the Dores wool they'd have to spend £30,000 on the initial order to stock it. Ouch.

K&P. Yes, the postage is a killer. I wonder if the Postal Service would like to Sponsor Woolly Hugs??? I think if Donating People realised how much the postage costs they'd happily order wool & have it delivered directly to a Crafy Person & more Crafty People would be fine with their address being given to the Donor People.

Madison. You know you can't post that & not tell us the colours! 😁

ShatteredStudentMum. I don't know if it would make much difference or not, I've always thought it was just to keep some kind of balance across the yarns, but I wouldn't have thought 3.5 or 5 would be the end of the world. I'll wait to see what K&P say though. Most charity shops gave like ads of knitting needles, but many keep them behind the counter/out the back, so you need to ask. If you buy them at a shop in town, then treat yourself to bamboo needles, they're lovely!

diamantegal I'm an accountant too (though currently not practising) but I can't count unless concentrating either, my brain just switches off! A few its a great square, it'll be perfect for C2017. 12" IS a lot of inches, I thought I might do a 12" CTC - but I soon changed my kind. 6" is PLENTY. My knitted stripes is a 12". I really must finish it.

Lucienandjean. Fab square! Yes, C is about a billion times faster than K. I love that it's so much easier to use lots of colours too, without just doing rows. However, I do still prefer the softer texture of knitting.

Malcolm. . When I have made mistakes at the beginning of rounds I have just frogged that bit and continued around to meet the first good bit, or frogged a section and used a separate piece of yarn to fix it. Could you not have done that?

Looking forward to seeing it, will check out the C2017 thread!

LEM. We need to blend, you crochet like a loose goose & I crochet as tight as a ducks bum! 😂

IAmNot. Who'd have thought in Truro? I thought it would all be Angora etc. Looking forward to seeing your Fire stripe. You have to earn your 😇 by sewing in the Pesky's as you go!

CraftyGirl. What colours have you got? Work, honestly, it's such an imposition! Sorry I'm not in Liverpool 😕 But I'd like to visit sometime, so I'll let you know & we can meet up - if you want to.

IAmA. Knitted I presume? I'd send it anyway. I'm sure the Magicians can work their magic. Else you could add a crochet border to it and make a Little Hug? They can be as small as 18x18. I'm sure someone would do it for you if you don't crochet. My skill level isn't up to that yet, or I'd offer!

LEM. Don't stress, it's really not important, it all works out in the end 😊 K&P told me to post them to the same address too. I think they just want to be sure they go to the project you want them too. I'm just going to tell them to use them where they they need them most, as I don't mind. If you just have a few, equivalent of about 4x 12" you can put them in an A4 envelope & they'll lay flat enough to post as a letter. If not you can put LOADS in a small parcel for under £3.

VOTING. You need to open up an incognito or private browser, then you can vote an unlimited number of times. I'm doing that with my left hand (iPhone) & typing with my right (iPad) 😂 I don't feel bad, I'm sure others are doing it for the other two!

Oh dear God, I've just seen how long that us . Please feel free to pretend my posts aren't there 😂

Chipping the colours I got were fuschia purple, empire and Kelly green. That would be great just pm me when you come visit one day. We'll go for xx

I have also voted a billionty times

Chipping- here's the finished little hug blanket, apparently I don't have any white dk so just used the same yarn. Ended up making 5 x 6" squares to use up the ball. Am sending them in to be used wherever they will be of use.

Vitty that's lovely. I was thinking of trying a c2c blanket at some point and that looks great.
I've followed a simple pattern in the 500 crochet blocks book to make a heart. It came out ok but the square was short so I stuck a border on the top and bottom.

Hi Chipping!

I didn't know how to frog the beginning of the round (I was literally at the end, next to the join when I noticed it). I practiced my standing crochets and invisible joins on this square so I don't know if that makes a difference?

Anyway, here is the finished square! Mostly in Candy's Hugs colours with a few intruders, but I will swap them out with Candy's Hugs colours when I re-do this once I'm done with Chernobyl.

When I posted mine, I put it in a proper expensive royal mail plastic envelope (with the dimensions printed on it - cost £1 so I may order some cheaper off ebay for next time) so it was clearly under the small parcel size. I also may have stood in my kitchen with the parcel in one hand and a kilo bag of icing sugar in the other just to gauge it (my scales are broken )

Anyhoo Here are the results of Raptors C2C efforts

I really like it (particularly how it decreases at the end, whereas granny squares just keep growing, so once you get to the middle you're over the hump as such)

oh i love love all of these squares!! Malcolm can you explain the invisible join? i saw it on a pattern and it put me off.

CraftyGirl. That should make for very Vibrant squares! You're on for when I make it there! Extra incentive now 😊

Vitty it's very sweet. I'm sure the little squares will find some friends for a blanket 😊

Chaz. Cool square!

Malcolm. That's FAB. Very vibrant!

I just undid the original slip stitch or standing starts and pulled 😂 You know where you started, so just undo it? I've perfected that Art of Frogging 😂

Evening all !
Gorgeous squares on here today.
I am off to do Chernobyl stuff, but I do love looking in :)
Raptor - i know exactly what you mean about c2c - that is why they are a favourite of mine ( being a knitter and all!) It gets quicker !

Gorgeous squares!

Here's my batch to go off tomorrow (two or three parcels). Big for C2017, small for Candy, and a Little Hug.

Colours have come out odd in the photo and won't adjust enough but you get the drift.

I now have tiny odds and ends of stuff so I'll be doing some plain striped hdc or something to use it up before I hit the (online) shops again

I'm coming up to my Knitting Club anniversary this week and my first crochet birthday around Easter. Better way to celebrate than a massive ssdk delivery? I think not.

helps if one attaches the attachment ...

LEM, I was confused too, until I saw it explained brilliantly (with photos, which always helps!) in a book I've got. I'll take a photo of the page tomorrow and PM it to you - it's really easy once you've got the hang of it.

Chipping, I did consider that, but then I didn't know how I'd re-do the frogged bit, because I'd have to work backwards? Although it's suddenly dawning on me that I might have been able to simply carry on from where I was at the end and just go past that point doing the correct stitches for the beginning...😳 That's it, isn't it? Oh God, why am I so thick?!!!!!

MrsH I love those colours, they're so beautiful and the Little Hug is gorgeous.

ChippingIn I love your posts. They make me feel real.

Peskies dealt with..

Well done Vitty.
I store all mine up for nursery craft.

Hello there! Well, I finally managed to get out and about, and the first thing on my shopping list was a jiffy bag big enough for the squares I've done. So now they're all packed up and wll be posted tomorrow (I hope). I forgot to put a note in saying Candy's Hugs, so I scrawled it many time on the outside of the thing. Hope that's OK, Knotty?

I've spent the day - when not feeding the family, the dd's bf, and the cats - trying the spiral posted by FurryLittleTwerp on one of the other threads. It's FIENDISH!!!!! I do't know how many times I've thought "Oh this is going well" just before I realised it wasn't at all, and had to completely undo it and start again.

How on earth did you do it, Furry? I just want to know how many stitches of the other colour there should be ahead when you swap over. Aaargh!

Chipping I agree with Marcipex, your posts are wonderful!
The colours that I was sent are Pomegranate, Turquoise, Saffron, Spice, Violet and Kelly Green!

Malcolm, that's a lovely square. Is that Tomato in it?
AIBU to buy Tomato when I already have 13 other Riotous colours?

I have mixed results from my weekend efforts. Two are definitely wonky.
Here are some of the decent ones.

And here's a couple of wonky efforts.

The lavender one is tunisian; I thought I could remember and didn't revise how to keep the edges straight.

Morning!
I have decided to post off today - was measuring parcel size rather than weight, so a lot of squishing ensued. Being rather a committed recycling person, I found the best fit plastic bag