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

Madison - he's quite happy so far - two days in , but he has queried the need to go every day - we will be picking him up once a week for wraparound care, and stay to make a meal for everyone , so will still see him regularly .
Its not so bad , second year Uni, they know their way around by then. Well - hopefully! But how lovely about playing house :)

This is his third year book can't believe he's coming to the end of it! A group of them stayed in halls for the second year as they couldn't find a house that didn't look like a health and safety hazard! The flat's lovely though, in a beautiful old building that's recently been refurbished and it's all freshly painted with new carpets so they've dropped on. Right opposite the Uni too. We all adore his girlfriend, I'll be devastated if they split up lol.

Bless him, must be a shock to their systems when they realise that they have to go every day. Has anyone broken the news to him that it's every day for the next 14 years yet?

Madison, thank you for asking - so far so good but after tea we've got to try and finish phoning around everyone. Still, crotchet to look forward to afterwards.

I had a sudden 'in 10 years my son could be at uni!' Time flies so quickly with children 😱

Witch - hope the crotchet helped
with DC its very much - infinitely slow while you are parenting at the coal face, incredibly warp speed when you look back ....
I am just getting back into the swing of a square a night , made easier by the rapidly darkening nights !

I keep meaning to post on this thread - so much to reply to! - but I smashed the screen on my phone a few weeks ago so it's a bit tricky to see!

Witch sorry to hear things have been hard. Hope you're doing OK.

book love the hedgehog! DD was back to year 1 this week - she wasn't looking forward to it because she wanted to go back to her YR classroom. I hope your DGS gets on as well with school as she has.

Raptor the blankets look great. My favourite thing about yarn cakes is that they take the thought out of combining colours. I think in future I will mostly use them for inspiration.

I got this book for my birthday, so I'm making my first every woolly soft toy for DD. She's chosen this yarn, so it's, er, vibrant.

I've sent my Manchester construction project back, with a couple of refugee squares. It's not perfect, and I know what I would do differently next time. But I think it ok. Working on Candys squares now.

I'd love to knit! I've got a little hug I started before DS was born, but he's a bit Velcro. I can crochet with him in my arms, but I don't have the freedom of movement for knitting. Maybe he will sleep in the Moses basket one day...!

Ooh yes Spin that yarn is very colourful

The FB crochet groups I'm in are all full of the news that Aldi is doing a special deal on yarn from 17th Sept, obviously no good for Candy's colours as it's not Stylecraft but probably worth a look for refugee makes etc.

Today has been a good day. I'm just one repeat off finishing my virus shawl, so I'll have it ready for Sunday morning without any problem. 🤞

I have realised that I've got to do Scout training tomorrow though so no crotchet for me 😔. Well, maybe tomorrow evening.

On the plus side, I've just found a couple of Candy squares tucked into my book that I must have finished just after the deadline to post. I'd forgotten all about them!

I've seen that Raptor but I didn't think they were that cheap.

I keep thinking about doing a virus shawl Witch the problem with the internet is all the lovely patterns......... too many ideas

I need to see the Aldi yarn in the flesh to see if it's worth it, Boyes had some in their sale for £1 but the balls were ridiculously small. Luckily I only live around the corner so it's no hardship to check it out

The toy kits look interesting though, DD is obsessed by pugs so I'll be checking that one out (nicked the pics of the brochure off the FB group post)

hello!
Spin - I am in awe that you can get anything done with a tiny baby .
With that wool you will need sunglasses :)
Witch -nice to hear you have had a good day . I have a virus shawl pattern in my download file for ages, but not plucked up the courage to do one yet.
I have spent some time sorting out a small portion of my wool stash. I have been buying all sorts from charity shops recently , so decided they needed putting into some sort of order , so I know what I have, and what I can do with it. I have found some lovely stuff - I think it will be mostly for refugee and little hugs through the winter. I have found a straightforward , nice pattern for crotchet wristwarmers, so may do some of those.

It's finished and I've done a granny candy too.

I may be addicted to virus shawls. This is the 3rd I've done now, although it's smaller than the other 2. I've also done a lost souls shawl for my best mate for her birthday. Oh... I nearly forgot the one I did for my niece too!

They're easier than they look Book - I started it on Sunday afternoon and have done just a little a day, finished about 8.30 tonight

ooh, may have to give it a go . I love the one in purple and lilacs . Do you have the pattern link?

It's a Bella Coco one from You Tube. The purple one was a Candy Swirl wool, which was really lovely to work with

ooh, think I remember seeing that in passing - thanks Witch :)

What is a virus shawl?

I have done these 3 little things, am thinking that the next one will be all 3 colours if I can decide where to change colour. These are violet, lavender and meadow.

The pattern's from the 100 Afghans book, and is a blanket I'm making for dd with a completely different wool. The squares are meant to be crocheted together as you go, but I forgot that bit of the pattern! I can sew them together when I deal with peskies. (Jux, thy name is Procrastinate!)

Oh, here's pic

The virus shawl is the pattern of the shawls on the left & right of my pictures Jux

They're pretty squares - I like the pattern!

Morning !
I think its called a virus shawl, as it just replicates itself over and over?
Jux - they are lovely - gorgeous pattern :)
I am doing rather eye popping saffron/tomato/kelly green :)

Oh witch sorry you've been having a rotten time.

That little hog is just so cute, I'm always amazed when I see such clever makes.

Spin how do you get anything done. I remember thinking I'd never get anything done ever again when mine were tiny.

Schools are back so time to crack on, DC2 started at secondry, DC4 has gone into the school nursery class and DC3 (asd) has settled nicely into her new class, seems her new teacher is very good with her.

This morning is mostly going to involve buckets of tea and lipstick and violet, going to do a diagonal knit, nice and easy for a Sat morning.

Oh that makes sense book about the virus shawl.

I want to start a blanket. We bought new cushion covers from Ikea a while back. I liked orange ones while my husband thought red would be good. I do like a bit of colour and love red so thought maybe they'd work. I hated them when we got them home (at first) and apart from a red glass vase there's nothing else red in the room. I've bought various caramel and beige colours for a blanket and a ball of Stylecraft Matador just to add a bit of red to it, just for the occasional narrow row of colour or as an embellishment depending on what pattern I decide on. Might get that started this week.

A very special project starting this evening, blanket making for a children's hospice, if you'd like to, come and have a look

Thank you so much xxxxx

Morning all! Hope everyone is ok.

I've just packed up a woolly parcel to post tomorrow. Now I'm perusing patterns looking for new squares to try. I might do some kinship hugs in the spice palette seeing as it's suddenly autumn!

I'm resisting the urge to start Chernobyl 2018 until after Christmas I think...

hello Norm :)
I have just done some rather bright Candys in saffron/tomato/kelly green, but after seeing I had some colours for the butterfly appeal, I've
also been doing some of those.
I've mostly been doing Kinship/Manchester squares over summer, and managed to construct a refugee blanket .
I have just been on Deramores (as they have 30% off ) to stock up, and saw all the new colours for Chernobyl, so have ordered some of those too :) 115 blankets this year ,
So I seem to have lots all going on at the same time - Little Hugs, toys for the craft sale, squares ...wrist warmers for DD for Christmas. My WIP bag is like a bomb has exploded!
the 12" is a little frilly - I should have ignored the pattern, and done less trebles around the outside, but hope it will pull out okay in the construction!