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

it surprises me how different it makes them look too, just swapping the colours that way - almost makes them look like different patterns :)

I’ve done shrimp, grass and turquoise together. In for a penny...!

Just so, book. I just did grass, shrimp, sherbet, shrimp, just to see. The grass and shrimp were a bit much for me, but when the sherbet went on around it became OK! I then put shrimp round the outside and it was still OK. Astonishing the different effects different combinations have!

Can we see Jux. That sounds striking.

book - do you do 13 rounds for a 12"?

Okki yes I do in trebles,(UK ) so it can alter if there are some different size stitches in the pattern :)

I do 17 - I have been wondering what would happen if I used a 5mm hook instead of a 4?

mm - thats a big difference . just to be certain , we are talking UK stitch terms? ( A treble in UK terms is a DC in US terms ).

Yup a U.K. Treble

This one is 16 but it's just under 12"

the bigger hook will help, but they always state to use a 4mm hook don't they, in the OP ..... tricky one

I joined a blanket together recently and was amazed at the differences in tension and number of rounds, so I just wondered about the 5mm hook. I will stick with a 4 though as that is what is specified.

Okki, DD uses a 5mm hook - her tension is ridiculously tight and she gets 6 rounds to a 6" granny square with the 5mm, which is what I get with a 4mm.

In other news, I'm going to unburden here again - FIL died this morning. He was in hospital after falling again; this time he'd fractured a vertebra but went downhill rapidly overnight. MIL has told DH not to visit her today, but I think he'll go tomorrow (fortunately we live fairly close). I think going with the flow will be the order of the next few days/weeks...

Spiral I am so, so sorry . Falls are so dangerous at that age, they seem to shock every aspect of the person - I have recently lost two uncles that way.

Spiral so sorry. Condolences to you and your family.

Okki, here's a pic of the colourful square (it's not remotely square; got to say it's one of my worst attempts of recent times ). DH is using it as a mat for his little pewter mug.

Spiral so sorry to read about your FiL . It is always a horrible time when parents are frail, when almost inevitably things like this happen.
Okki - and for you too - I read the post upthread about the hugs blankets, but didn't comment at the time.
I think we all know we could be in that place sometime, and doing the blankets for WH feels as we are helping, in whatever a small way. .
Thinking of you both , and the ones around you

Jux - x post - the colours really work ! - I'm sure it would pull into a square if you kept going :)

Jux I LOVE that colour combo. I will try it out soon.

Spiral sorry for your loss.

Thank you all

DH has gone to see MIL this afternoon and BIL is down from London too. We now have to wait for all the bureaucratic stuff to unfold next week.

I am distracting myself by trying to find lovely squares to do for CTK's blanket.

I'm so sorry for your loss Spiral. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

Spiral I'm so sorry to read that.

I'm just going to unburden a bit about my mother in law. She invited herself to stay last week. She arrived for an overnight stay two days later on Wednesday, left to visit her husband's grave which is 200 miles away on Thursday, returned here on Saturday and has been sitting in the chair watching TV pretty much ever since and is staying until Wednesday. She's very difficult, full of doom and gloom, and really brings down the mood in our usually very happy home.
Plus she wears horribly strong perfume which is overpowering and which we can smell on all three floors of the house and has given me a headache.

Madison hope your headache has gone and that you have a stress free day today.

Morning all
just a quick pop in to see how everyone is
Spiral - my thoughts are with you - it is a truly horrible and stressful time .
Madison - I seem to remember you mentioning your MIL before - it's not nice when someone imposes on you like that, and takes advantage . Bury your head in your crotchet. Maybe open all the windows today - its nice and breezy, and the cold wind may encourage her to go out for a visit elsewhere . Say you are taking advantage of the weather to 'air' the house ( and then cower in your room, with the window and door shut!)
Back to Candys today while waiting for a bit of wool for CTK next square