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 book I do love the meadow one I'm getting more familiar with US terms so I can branch out a bit in Ravelry. I've also mastered the magic circle, and today I learned standing trebles

www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/stylecraft-special-candy-swirl-coconut-ice-3724-150g

Has anyone else seen these on wool warehouse? I'm practically salivating waiting for them to come into stock! I feel lots of little hugs coming on...

Book I was relieved to see my squares too!

Unfortunately not back to early walks yet, his paw still looks a little tender and it's quite rough, gravelly ground in places on the common behind our close.
Norman this particular receptionist was really sharp with me once when we'd had to take him to another vet when he cut himself and they were closed. I think that once he's sorted we'll change vets, we've used this one for years (pre-dog times, when we had Guinea Pigs) and were always happy with the care given and the vet who owned it was so very lovely. Unfortunately she sold it and there seems to be a constant turnover of staff now. We don't go often, once or twice a year, but considering it's a small place with just two consulting rooms we've never seen the same vet more than once since it was taken over.

I hadn't seen those but my goodness, they're all beautiful!

You have to get on with your vets, definitely. You don't have to be best friends but you do have to feel confident to go!

My stash cupboard is full so I can't buy anything ... Little Hugs you say?

I should be posting my completed (joint) Candy's Hug tomorrow. Really proud of myself.

I'm supposed to be destashing! Those can go on my wish list, which is a bit shorter than my to do list.

I've wondered this for a while, MrsH: what's a joint blanket?

Joint blanket is where lots of people make squares and someone joins them together (joint as in collaborative) as opposed to when one person makes the whole thing by herself, that's all.

Ah, OK. Thanks!

Morning!

Had a request to make a blanket for a family who lost their daughter at Manchester, she liked Emma Watson's Beauty and the Beast, so will be picking out more of the yellows and blues, heartbreaking isn't it, but so glad we can. Thank you everyone. xxxxxx

How does a moment last forever? How can a story never die?
It is love we must hold on to, never easy, but we try
Sometimes our happiness is captured
Somehow a time and place stand still,
Love lives on inside our hearts, and always will

Evening all
I finished a square for Candy's yesterday - a 12" so took a bit longer
in Violet/Lavender/Kelly Green .

I forgot to say - MrsH - that is such a lovely poem

It's from the new Beauty and the Beast. I thought it would go well with the blanket K and/or P described.

Meanwhile there's been much frogging of this twelve-inch. It's in shrimp and turquoise so quite striking in real life! Colours never quite come out in phone photos.

Lovely squares

MrsH do you have to use front post trebles and similar to achieve that effect?

Front Post Trebles!!! Aaaaaaargh! I was trying to learn how to do crocodile stitch. It's all FPTs and BPTs. (The instructions I was using for it was American so it was fpdc and bpdc. I swear that people invent new stitches just so they can have longer and longer strings of letters...! Anyway, crocodile stitch is fiendish and I've given up until I am a better craftsman ).

Hope you're all well. Sorry I have missed you all; am having problems with my fingers atm, but they're getting better and then I'll be back on the crochet properly.

Front post triple trebles no less! It's an absolute pig.

Afternoon!
well , it is so hot outside, I decided to come back in the cool to finish a square I was doing last night.
Its in Pomegranate/Fuchsia/Boysenberry/Plum
MrsH - front post triple trebles - I have done a few front post trebles, but how on earth do you keep the tension right? Looks stunning though ... :)
Jux - not good with the fingers , hope they are not painful? . Crocodile stitch - may give that a miss then !

MrsH I am not worthy!

book, the little finger keeps me awake at night but otherwise they're OK, just not too flexible. I give them sound talking to's and force exercise upon them

Jux hope the fingers get better soon. I saw some crocodile stitch on pinterest. I thought 'ooh that looks nice' and not 'ooh that looks like something I could try!'

MrsH all the pigginess was worth it - it looks ace!

book another beautiful square in amazing colours

It's too hot to crochet here. My poor cat keeps wandering around and randomly flopping on the floor. He looks at me as if I can turn the heating down for him and I'm just being mean making him hot Roll on tomorrow when it's supposed to be cooler!

The library book that I've had for several months (100 afghans to knit and crochet) is going back today - were expecting things to get a bit chaotic here in the next six weeks or so (37 weeks today). I've done at least one square based on patterns 1 to 20, so got my money's worth! And I'm sure I'll get it back.

Crocodile stitch isn't great for squares because the pattern zig zags at the side.

It's fabulous for fingerless gloves though! And much easier than it looks.

Some patterns are awfully complicated because you have to write out every stitch. Good patterns additionally annotate rows eg "this row makes pairs of posts in the gaps between the leaves of the last row" so you get an overview and don't have to count so fastidiously.

Just checking in. I'm loving seeing all the squares, they're all amazing. I think I need to learn to crochet at some point. I have been working on refugee squares but currently doing a scarf for my daughter's birthday. I was sent a lovely package of wool for refugee squares so I'm sure I will find time to use all that up too.

I used to think I couldn't crotchet Nerr, having always knitted. I am now a firm convert and get fidgety if I can't crotchet 😁

It's gone very quiet on here. Is everyone doing their own projects?

I'm here , :) but the last few hot days have slowed me down .
About 8" in on a 12" for Candys

I sent my big Candy's off last week and have received a Manchester kit in return.

Construction is pretty miserable in hot weather (lap full of blanket!) so I'll give it a few days. Shared my pig a few days ago and have only finished the attached since. DC1 has a birthday this week so there has been some related activity, and that's before one considers that the delightful DC REFUSE TO GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP in this heat so the evening shrinks considerably.

Ahem. Attached.

It's straighter in real life