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

Spin and Book - lovely pieces of work going on there!

I've been doing lots of plain solid granny squares to use up my current Candy stash. Not exciting but quick and easy, and I figure always needed.

However now I've done a little Honey and Roses pattern and want to turn it into a 12" - it's about 4" so far. Solid trebles will take forever, is there a way of switching to normal granny trebles? I.e. 3 trebles, chain space, 3 trebles etc. I can't work it out.

absolutely Jux --
I still have one of those french knitting pins - waiting for DGS to be a bit bigger to try. I used to do reams of the things, then make them into circular mats , as that was just about all you could do with it!
Drop - can you check how many stitches you have , and divide by 3 ( or 4) and pop the 3 trebles in evenly? put corners on stitches either side of the corner stitch ( does that even make sense? )

I'd say it's pretty much the same, except the hole in the middle is a lot bigger

Raptor it's now on my Xmas wish list, thanks!

Drop, I've seen patterns that do DC, skip one stitch, chain one, DC, etc, then use the chain one spaces for the whole next row if bigger gaps are called for.

Thanks @Intransige
I tried a couple of ways but couldn't get it to look good so gave up and just carried on with trebles!

Morning all! Just checking in. Some lovely photos on here

Thanks for the link to the bobbly heart pattern Heckity I've been looking for one of those.

Spin I found a copy of the afghan book in a second hand shop! The daisy blanket caught my eye. Is it easy to do? I've never tried anything like that.

Drop If you haven't finished your square yet, I'd suggest looking at the cosy stripe pattern on Attic24's blog. That switches between trebles and granny clusters. I think it's a 3 treble cluster, skip 2 trebles and another cluster. Then for the first round you could fudge the corners so it works?

I've finished a few squares, a big little hug, and am working on a medium sized one and a little one. I've been side tracked by other things though. My sister has asked for a blanket. Double bed sized... It's going to take a while!

Drop can you not just pull out the last (solid) round you've completed and do granny clusters into round four?

Norman good find! My favourite pattern so far is the white star one.

The stitches in the daisy blanket aren't hard - the only tricky bit is getting your slst between the right two stitches when you join the daisies. Some of mine are out by one but I don't think it matters. I'm not sure mines as big as it claimed it would be. And (as with any large project I guess) it's pretty repetitive (which may be a good thing).

Norm - what a find! - I have been scouring for crotchet books recently , and there is nothing . I assume everyone keeps theirs .
Thought I would pop on to say - does anyone else get emails from Love Knitting ?- there is a 20% sale off Stylecraft SSDK , ( makes it £1.45 a ball) along with others.(Sirdar snuggly, Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino etc) It says this too :- Free delivery on orders over £25!
15% off your 1st order! Code: CASTON
I wonder if you get the 15% and the 20% off ...

I have some squares ready to post and have an address from last year. It hasn't changed has it? And is it ok to post now or should I wait until September?

Oh book, I have only just skirted another shopping accident there! Saved by PayPal, as it shows the wrong amount, the amount my basket came to before I popped one or two little extras in! No matter what I do, it is the old basket which comes onto PayPal not the latest with the treaty bits (a new hook and stuff like that).

I could go ahead anyway, but I want my extra bits almost more than I want the wool!

glorious on the Woolly Hugs website it says to wait until 2nd September.

Thank you bookbook for the Love Knitting info and yes you do get the 15% and 20% off so I have got a big parcel coming as I also kept adding to my basket to get the free postage - I'm very happy.

Ah thanks spindelina, I'd failed to spot that bit. I'll hold off.

Glad it was of help!
Jux - Paypal to the rescue! It is always the 'extras' that get me too :)
I still have so much wool, I couldn't in all conscience buy any, but was wanting to . I bought a load when the call went out for Manchester squares, and now they are ongoing I can use up those colours, and I did top up on Candys colours at the same time.

book - thanks for the info about Love knitting. I am very happy, my bank account isn't. . Looking forward to receiving it.

book noooo! I spent £50 on wool warehouse at the weekend, order on its way already. I'm a slow hooker so I've ordered about 6 months worth, really can't justify adding to that no matter how much I want to!

mhw and norman thank you for help. I've finished it now, I'd frogged a couple of rounds of attempts and figured I should just get on with it and finish the square in trebles.

book, I went back later and it was OK so I did have that shopping accident after all I also used the CASTON code and got that discount. I couldn't spend over whatever it was to get free delivery, but got quite enough as it was especially considering that I still haven't managed to use up what I already had (and I'd made a promise to myself that I wouldn't buy more until I had none left ).

Thank you for the tip, I am getting Candy's Colours, for very cheap -and some bits! [flowrs]

Just checking in from hollibobs, how is everyone? Busy trying to finish DD's blanket, its in chunky and it came to very hot Arizona to see the glorious Grand Canyon, 44 degrees, but no squeaking yarn as so desert dry, just friffin HOT, had regrets and did wish for a lighter project, although doing in squares!

Just a few balls of yarn arrived today

Sorry all you folks ! Terrible wool pusher
glad the code worked for you Jux :)
oooh Drop - like the look of the multi colour ones on the right
Aran crotchet in 44º - madness < shakes head>

book it's Stylecraft merry go round. I'm going to take it on holiday next week and attempt a little hug, means I just need yarn and hook on the plane.

Oh goodness....44 degrees and Aran! We were in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon last October and it was more than hot enough for my pale and blonde self even then! I dread to think what it feels like in August!

Drop do Wool Warehouse actually have any stock left after sending you your small order? 😉

Just popping in to say hello, I've been busy having a go at making a baby blanket for a mum from toddlers, and by jove I did it, it took forever and luckily she knows it was my first one but it actually looks ok. Best get back to Candys now though.