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

On close inspection the wheel is absolutely stinking dirty. Need to throughly clean it. Any suggestions about the fleece? It is so dirty I don't want to touch it.

claire - exciting! - I have an acquaintance at my local craft meet up who spins wool from her own sheep . I will ask her - but I won't see her for a few days

Claire, that spinning wheel is magnificent!

No idea re the fleece, though.

Morning all!

I may or may not have added to my wool collection..... My DH doesn't mind in the least, it's my kids who tell me off! 😂

That spinning wheel is well lush.

Love the spinning wheel, Claire. No idea what to do with it.

Saw this on Facebook this morning. Thought of you lot.

How exciting Claire' no idea about the fleece though. Is it smellier because it's old? Maybe some 'fresh' fleece wouldn't smell so strong?
(disclaimer: I haven't a clue what I'm taking about)

Witch hope life is treating you kindly.

Claire, I've found couple of sites which have stuff about spinning from fleece. They both tell you how to wash the fleeces and seem to recommend that you do so:

www.yarnmaker.co.uk/fleece/FleeceWashweb.pdf
www.lucylambcrafts.co.uk/fleece-to-garment.html

Hi Witch, how're you doing?

Thanks all. I am going to wash the fleece on the weekend. MIL was adamant not to wash it, but I can't spin it like it is.

Going to post my Candy's Hugs tomorrow and a small quantity of butterfly hospice squares. Then going to concentrate on trazzletoes and hospice squares until the next deadline.

If I can get the hang of the spinning, I wonder if wool would be suitable for the refugee hats/scarves etc? Going to try natural dyeing too.

Thanks for the links Jux.
Spin she is not selling the lace making stuff yet, but it is a round green dome cushion with lots of wooden spindles.

Thank you all, we're doing ok but life is busy at the moment. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time to do squares once we've finished clearing the house 😔

oh Witch - tough times , hope the wool buying, and some time to use the wool helps .

Hmm - at the moment my wool fits (just) into a largish bag that some was delivered in. I can foresee storage problems though as in becoming a little obsessed right now! I'm having a go at a lap blanket for me, using granny stitch crocheted in a chevron design, so hopefully will use up some of it. I also want to make a nice scarf or two with some, so will try to resist buying more until I've done those.

I've sent off my squares - hopefully they'll pass muster and someone somewhere will be able to use them

Morning!

Spinning!

Will be sending out 11 kits to the amazing Construction Crew tomorrow for joining and edging, love them, none of this would function without their enthusiasm and skills!

Saturday 28th October is our next collection date to aim for..

THANK YOU! xxxxxxx

When you think that one kit contains equivalent of 80 six inch squares, that is an extraordinary achievement, but nothing about Woolly Hugs is ORDINARY!

Folk never fail to amaze, thank you everyone

11 kits that's fantastic, it must take you such a long time to sort all the squares out into suitable arrangements too

I'm working on a vintage kinship, hoping to do a whole blanket but I've never joined squares before. I've done 36 x 6" squares so far - moving onto some 12" shortly!

Also working on a little hug at the same time as a blanket for my DD - will just be lots of 6" granny but in a multitude of colours, got a bit carried away with my SSDK ordering! I've done 25 of those squares but need about 120 I think.

I've also agreed to help a local charity who supply bereavement kits to the hospital for families who've suffered a stillbirth or neonatal loss. A bit like Angel hugs but as it's where I lost DD1 it's close to my heart. Aiming to finish a blanket for them before babyloss awareness concludes in 2 weeks - nearly there with that one.

Oh Drop - huge love to you, we will be thinking of your beautiful girl xxx

Let us know if we can help with blankets for your local charity, message us? xxxxxx

[[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3048454-Welcome-to-Woolly-Hugs-Christmas-Craft-Sale-2017-for-the-amazing-charity-Meningitis-Now If anyone would like to help us with our Christmas fundraiser for Meningitis Now and our own ongoing projects, all help very grateful received, thank you xxx]]

Tidy

Not selling these on here, but if anyone not on FB would like to know how to grab one, please message us asap, there are 9 left xxxx

Posted these last Saturday, along with 2 butterfly squares. Concentrating on Trazzles squares and if I can, more butterfly hospice squares.

Ooh I like the pattern in the first pic, is it online claire?

This is the pattern

spincushions.com/in-a-spin-week-18/

I used a 4mm hook and just kept going with plain treble rounds into each stitch until it reaches 6""

Hello
back from doing squares for Billies Butterflies, Candlelighters and Trazzles .

Starting up Candys again, and trying to do a few bits for the craft sale too. There are not enough hours in the day. :)
So first square - I think I have been doing US ones for so long I used the wrong stitches for this its a Jan Eaton 6" , but had to give up with a lot of rounds to go ... In Petrol and Grass Green

That's lovely Book. Puff stitches are next on my list to learn so I can do some of the fancier Jan Eaton squares