Zombie and Woolly Hugs. OVER HERE!! Come and find out about her legacy of Candy’s Hugs, newcomers and old hands, all very welcome

[KnottyAndPistey]

Welcome to the most beautiful corner of Mumsnet, here the love and support is boundless, these are the folk you need to be around, come and join us, you'll not regret it :) Our inspiration comes from the wonderful Zombie, a true legend who continues to inspire us.

We knew her time left with us was short, but the news of Zombie’s death on January 30th was still a 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

So many blankets with beautiful women going through treatment now because of your love and support. Thank you doesn't even come close. xx

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, maybe a bit unsure, 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 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 xx

Thanks everyone, so interesting to think about, have another..

Why do you think knitting has seen resurgence in popularity recently?

and crochet obvs!

The trendiness (flowing credit crunch) of make-do-and-mend type ideas has made loads of homemaking-type crafts popular. Lots of interesting feminist theory in that!

flowing following

I think knitting has had a resurgence because people are wanting to give or own something made especially for them. For people like me whose mobility isn't too good it gives us something that we can do, and is very therapeutic. It's also one of those things that once you start you just can't stop!

I see all crafts ( not just knitting and crotchet) as being something of a kickback from an homogenous offering on the high street. Something a lot more one off and personal, and allows for making things which have a very personal style .
It also is very de stressing too!

I think the retro resurgence with programmes such as Bake Off have made people aware of the simple forgotten pleasures and lots of traditional consumers are turning away from mass produced, disposable consumerism in favour of something more meaningful and unique.

I think lifestyle blogging has probably been a factor (and the internet generally). My gran used to knit and tried to teach me as a young child (mum wasn't interested, although she could sew) and it's quite a hard thing to 'get' and probably harder to teach but having youtube videos that you can pause and rewind and a huge amount of free patterns online mean it's just so much more accessible.

Ooh ooh ooh, just thought of another piece of advice for starters, which mum gave me - but which I didn't follow

Use a hook that's bigger than is recommended for your wool/wool that's too thin for your hook, then you can really see the stitches and how they're being made and so on. That is only for absolute beginners.

Finally picked up my hook again and thoroughly enjoyed having a couple of hours of peace and quiet last night!

A tip for beginners. Use light coloured wool initially as its easier to see the stitches. One of my early squares was a dark coloured wool and it was much harder to work into the rows below.

I think handmade blankets are a way of showing that someone cares. Its not about the wool, its about the time and effort.

I enjoy crochet as its creative and its a break from screens. I spend all day at work in front of screens and so I don't always want to come home and spend more time watching a screen. Crochet is also easy to learn and doesn't require much specialist equipment.

For me crocheting is a way to unwind and think through what happened that day or will happen depending on the time. It also allows me to put my restless hands to an extremely good cause. Just to keep all you lovelies updated on my stupidity, the orthopedic registrar came round this morning and said that the swelling in my foot is still too bad to do the op today or tomorrow but it should hopefully be getting done on Monday xx

That's a bit of a blow Crafty 😔 Fingers crossed for Monday!

I've just been in The Range and DH says 'lets go and have a look at the wool then'. I can't believe he encouraged me, and now I've ended up with these beauties.... £15 for 2 😁

That makes it 5 projects on the go and loads more 'ooo that's a nice pattern, which I'd like to try!' 😱

Fingers crossed for Monday Crafty

I started crochet to try and help with anxiety (I went thru a period of having panic attacks a few years back), it really does work you can't overthink things when you're endlessly counting stitches in your head

I'm really tempted by Caron cakes Witchy and we have a Range near us

I agree it stops you overthinking things Raptor, which makes it good as an unwinding thing after a day at work. It's also something that makes me feel useful - I can't do physical stuff so at least I can make things!

Go on, you know you want to....... it's a nice wool to work with and I haven't seen it cheaper anywhere else! 😈

Thanks guys. If I'm honest I'm sort of glad its not til Monday cause that gives me a little more time to process everything then xx

Afternoon!
just popping in as am doing kinship and Juan's squares.
That wool looks lovely- Witch - you have an understanding DH!
crafty - hope all goes well on Monday - and you are coping with the pain .

Crafty best of luck for Monday

Finished my first square! And then spotted my mistake (rhs)

All the very best, Crafty

Hep, only God can be perfect. You introduced a deliberate error, right?

Of course .

It's right before I finished, but I did such a good job of finishing off I can't find the find the end to undo.

Ah well.... Just gives me an excuse to do more.....

Best wishes for Monday crafty

It's not an obvious mistake Hep so I would send it in anyway - it's got character!

I would definitely still send that square it's still neater than most of my efforts.

I'm currently working on some refugee squares before I get cracking on more candy ones.

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Hep I hope you're still going yo send that! It's far better and much more ambitious than the first ones I sent.

Crafty fingers crossed for tomorrow

I've been a busy hooker this week. I've made two Little Hugs and I've just finished my third square for Juan's blanket. I've got a great big pile to send in for Candy though.