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

claire, I hope Glastonbury soothes your soul.

Have a fab holiday, Okki, and a fab staycation, Madison.

claire take good care of yourself and enjoy your time in Glastonbury.

Hope everyone has a great summer! I decided to improve my crochet skills by working my way through the Jan Eaton book. Unfortunately I have fallen at literally the first hurdle so I'm going to pick some different squares from Ravelry instead.

Morning
Spin - how are you? (and limpet of course! )
Norm - oh no! I quite liked the Jan Eaton, - I used those first before Ravelry after practising with Bella Coco ( did you know the willow pattern she uses also shows you the Jan Eaton pattern along the bottom? ) - The only thing about Jan Eaton I find is the sizing doesn't quite match up for me - they come out a tweak small.

Limpet and I are doing well, thanks book. I thought it was about time I learnt C2C...working sort of 1.5-handed...

Claire I hope glasto did it's thing and you're not worrying too much

Spin Congrats on the new arrival hope everything's going well

Norm keep trying, I think a good few of them will have youtube videos if you get stuck (I still haven't properly cracked the willow square).

I've been away on me hols (with yarn) so although I've been (slowly) making hugs I haven't been keeping up with the threads very well (slaps wrist).

I need to start work on a Heidi Bears toy, but I keep putting it off. 3d things scare me a little, but I need to have a crack at it (promised for someone's birthday in November). I just need to figure out the colours to use.

Oh Spin that photo makes me broody. I love squishy little newborns

Thanks book and Raptor I've made a few of her squares and mostly they turn out ok, the sizing is definitely a bit off though. I was going to do them all from number 1. The first one is a c2c in doubles. It came out very narrow, not a right angle at all. I tried pulling it around but it wasn't behaving I'll try the willow one with the tutorial instead

Hope you're having a nice holiday Raptor, definitely make a start on the toy. I made some little chicks for Easter it was fun! They must have looked ok too, QC my cat took a shine to them and has added them to his vast toy collection.

Norman I'm glad I'm not the only one who would start at the beginning! All but six of the squares I've sent in so far, and my ripple blanket, have been based on numbers 1-20 of 100 Afghans to knit and crochet, which I got from the library. Once things have settled a bit such that I trust myself to renew/return it, I'm going to get it back and do number 21.

How disciplined you two are!
I just flicked through and picked out the ones I liked and thats also what I do with Ravelry . I just download , or save to favourites/Pinterest, and go from there . I haven't done the same pattern twice so far

I have done a few patterns twice, but they've all been ones that I either deliberately tried out in ssdk or that I particularly liked before doing in merino for zlad or Juan.

Oh lok at that gorgeous baby! Congrats Spin.

Ahh spin how lovely

Norm my sizings are almost always off from that book, quite often I end up having to add an extra row or 2 to get it to 6".

I haven't done them in order (the difficulty ratings go up and down through the book), but every time I do a new one I tick it off at the front. In ten years or so I might have made them all

I've bought the toy pattern now, so I'm committed God help me

gorgeous baby spin. Maybe his first word will be crochet , and he will be the youngest Wooly hug recruit.

Didn't get to Glastonbury yesterday, my bladder wouldn't let me.

Is the Jan Eaton book worth investing in for a novice? I notice book that you haven't done the same square twice - I am the opposite, I do the same square in every colour that I have, I even keep a record of the square made and the colour. Once I find a pattern that works to size and fairly simple I stick with it.

I have some failsafe squares that I go back to again and again (waffle, c2c, circle to square, etc) but I like to learn something new for (original, wool) Woolly Hugs as it's part of the devotional offering.

Claire - most definitely worth getting. I have it too and love it!

Afternoon !
I should clarify, as maybe I was a tweak wrong in that I haven't done the same square twice. I haven't for Candy's , but when the call went out for Chernobyl and Manchester, I did a lot of c2c and grannys, - those I can do them anywhere, without a pattern in front of me ...
I just spend a lot of time googling now. A lot of the patterns are quite similar, but usually, if I find one I like, I will often see if that person has written more - I like Priscilla Hewitt ones as they are just a bit more special.
claire - I got the Jan Eaton book out of the library , so maybe thats worth atry first?

Ta - da! I did a willow square. I managed it from the Jan Eaton pattern without the tutorial.

With regards to the sizing in Jan Eaton's book, I always use a 3.5mm hook for in the round patterns and 4mm for patterns in rows. That seems to work best for me but I am a loose hooker

Spin is that an Edie Eckman book?

I'm a bit guilty of sticking to squares I can do from memory as it's easier, but feel I should do more variety, especially for Candy's hugs. The dahlia square and african flower? (I think that's what it's called) I posted a few days ago were new ones for me. Realistically I don't think I'll do all the Jan Eaton squares because some of them just don't appeal to me. I like the bobble ones and will try more of the flower ones though for sure.

Raptor keep us posted on that toy

Has anyone got a good pattern for a heart in a square? I found one on ravelry but It had errors in it right at the beginning so I didn't trust it. I thought if I carried on I'd get in a right mess!

It's this one, Norman. It's a mix of blankets made from squares, and ones that are in one piece as it were. None of the squares claim to be 6", so I've been adding rounds to many. Worth what I paid to get it out of the library, anyway!

Lovely Norm :)
I know DD has done a couple -she did a nice one in 12" that was in the Manchester blanket on fb last week. Can ask her if you like?
Have you looked at the ideas for patterns on the Woolly Hugs website ?
HERE
Spin - I may see if our library has that !

Thanks Spin I'm going to try to get a copy of that book.

book I never thought of looking on Woolly Hugs! Thanks, I've found a couple I'm going to try

That's ace Norm at some point I'll have another go at cracking a willow square

Erm....... the toy....... well, i decided to nip into my local Boyes and look at colours for inspiration.

Came out with 2 more of the candy swirl cakes (apple sours - out of stock on Wool Warehouse)

They had a whole stand of them! All the colours!!!! I could not resist.

Considering the amount of yarn I already have in the house, it's quite possible I have some kind of yarn addiction

Haha! Raptor - I will be going into Boyes on Friday , so may just have to go and have a look ( mind you, recently they have been very short of the colours for Candy's hugs where I go, not sure why?
I am plodding away with the construction of the refugee blanket. I don't know if I am very slow, but it seems to be taking a long time. Mind you, I can only do an hour a day on it. I do that during the day, and do squares on a night . But its getting there. I promised myself I would finish that before starting another Little Hug.
In the meantime , on the wool buying front ...... I was in our local Oxfam and found this bag of wool - nearly a complete 8 balls of Sirdar Snowflake (and it had the pattern it was bought with) . It is incredibly soft . Not sure yet what to make with it though ....it s chunky weight. It was a bargain !!

Well, just thought I'd pop in and see how everyone is !
I finished the refugee blanket construction which took me a bit more time than I thought. Doing bits and bobs , but about to start properly getting some squares done now the evenings are beginning to draw in.
So I have done a Little Hug with some wool given me by a lovely old lady form her stash, hat for refugees and a couple of kinship squares.

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/last-dance-on-the-beach-scheepjes-cal-2016
For square ideas including a heart pattern

I may have bought a knitting loom set off Amazon...........

In my defence (not an actual defence) it came with 'free' pompom makers

I made a (smaller than expected but still looks like a hat) hat this afternoon, whilst DD made pompoms

Even DH was impressed with how quickly I made it. I sense many hats will be made