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

Aww Witch! Coming back to the cold is horrible isn't it. We had a November holiday in Florida a few years ago and landed at Manchester to frozen car door handles.
When we finally managed to get into the car I sat there and sobbed! I did NOT want to be back in chilly England!
The kids still bring it up and laugh about me crying even now.

Good to see you back though, btw.
Did you have a lovely time?

Can I join?
I am a long time lurker on zombies old threads, and this year have taught myself to crochet to help with my anxiety.

I finally feel like i have learnt enough not to embarrass myself ! Am sewing together the squares of my first (practice) project, and other than discovering i need to be better at hiding the ends of the wool - it doesn't look too bad ! Am also working on a shawl.

Is there a good place to look at for some squares to get started? Could I request some wool? I already have my 4mm hook (clover amour) on standby.

We had a fab time Madison, thank you for asking. I've got a satisfactory pile of squares to go in the post as soon as I get up and dressed (oh, how I have missed my bed!), and while I was away I learned how to read a crotchet pattern 😁

Morning Hop, the more the merrier! I started with the Bella Coco tutorials on you tube, which is where a lot of us learned I think. Just message Knotty with your request for wool and she'll sort you out.

Sorry, Hep not Hop! Autocorrect is doing it's thing again 😱

poor you Witch - its horrible coming back to the cold, ( its worse next week arghhhhh) .
Its fascinating getting into reading patterns, some are so much easier than others, it seems to me .
Hep - settle yourself in ! yy to Bella Coco , and also look at Ravelry - its free to join, and there are loads of free patterns on there :)

Just catching up and looking at everyone's lovely squares.

Have left the hooking on hold temporarily as I really MUST finish my knitting WIP. And I have had something fluey, which started with me shivering violently while in a hot bath, then progressed to a 39C temperature and limbs stuffed with broken glass. Better now though!

Colder next week! Noooooooo!

Sounds nasty Spiral, hope you feel better soon!

Spiral hope you're soon feeling better

Hello Hep. Yes, Bella Coco is fab, and there's a book you can get by Jan Eaton - 200 Crochet Blocks - which has proved useful to many of us on here!

Witch I start craving my own bed and my own shower!

Thanks!
I watched Bella Coco to help learn the basic stitches.

Madison That book looks great ! I am running out of excuses now .....

Glad to be of help Hep be careful because we're enablers, before you know it Wool Warehouse will be turning up at your door with a pallet and you'll swear blind that you only intended ordering two balls

OH is already bemused by my new hobby. GrumpyOldCat is less impressed .......

Today's effort

Might help if I add the picture

Afternoon new thread and everyone on it!

I know it's further up, but Norman your Little Hug is a thing of beauty!

I really need to stop getting inspired by everyone else's work and the Attic 24 website and use up the 2 bags of wool I've got. Either that or give up work. I'm favouring the latter but DH and the bank may disagree with that plan.

It's just all so pretty!

I can relate, my husband looks at me and shakes his head at times. Last weekend he said "look at her, she used to be so rock n' roll"

That's really pretty Madison. 😀

My DH just humours me. I don't think he quite realises how much I spend, however this may change tomorrow morning as he's agreed to take me to the wool shop I've been wanting to visit 😇

I reckon DH's face when I mention crochet is pretty similar to mine when he's gluing terrain together for his Warhammer club.

At least my hobby is limited (at the moment) to 2 bags of wool whereas his takes up half the kitchen and a good portion of the shed

Bookbook and I liken our incessant crochet chatter to our respective DHs droning on about the finer points of poker. My poor DSis has no interest in either!!

Today I went to the stitching sewing and hobby craft show at Excel in London. A stall holder was selling stylecraft wool for £1.85. So if anyone is going remember to take a list of the colours.

Good point actually Raptorina. My husband's obsession hobby is cycling and the garage is home to several mountain and road bikes plus a turbo trainer and a repair stand, and then there's all of his clothing. Not only does his hobby take up more space, it takes more money too and mine doesn't mess the kitchen up with mud

Hello! Just joining the new thread. I'm trying to make a set of matching squares this time, after seeing all the lovely ones for Chernobyl. Let's see how things progress

Hello everyone, I followed the scent of gin over. We need a tidy up though, there's bits of wool everywhere

Great news about baby bear!

Will be thinking of Zombie tomorrow as I do my heart embellishment in lipstick, seems appropriate for her birthday.

This cold weather has given me an idea for a nice sunny square - saffron on sherbert.

Sorry you're having a rubbish time MrsD and Spiral.

Welcome Hep, to the brightest and friendliest corner of MN

Evening!
well, I'm not sure what happened to today, where did it go?
Spiral - glad you are on the mend.
Great news on Bear baby :)
Madison - onto rows now - lovely :) (I haven't found the love for those yet - it takes too much brain power to work out the first set of chains for the right size! )
I have managed another 2 to add to last nights square. After saying it would be a 12" it turned out 6". so decided to make another set of 4 :)
these are Shrimp/Petrol/Fuchsia .
Off to plod on with Little Hug now - I'm over the hump on the c2c