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

ouch, Crafty!

book that's gone on my ever-growing to do list. My library book is on DHs account (because he goes past the library more than me, so it was easier for him to pick up). He's renewing it online whenever required, but is refusing that responsibility from July. So that's my deadline. After that, work on the to do list starts!

That's Jux and Spin. It is absolutely killing me Jux and its broken that bad they say I need an op to sort it properly xx

It's a bit extreme to break your leg just so you'll have more time for making squares Crafty! Seriously though, I hope all goes well with your operation and the subsequent healing 💐

oh no Crafty - thats not sounding good . Feet up for a good while I guess.

Spin, thanks for putting up yr progress - it's really fascinating!

I've been ill this week, and am missing crochet really badly! I haven't been able to take any of my normal pills, and am still shaking too badly to take it up. To add insult to injury, I found a (cheapish) copy of the JE book, which apparently arrived on Wed when I was really out of it from dehydration, and the parcel lay there unopened until an hour ago!

Work was getting in the way Witch, thanks. It's more just the aching at the minute book xx

This is a shameless place-marking post. I lost you all and haven't done any crochet for weeks - must put that right as I still have oodles of yarn left.

Pictures of the finished blankets on FB have made me feel quite emotional. I am in awe of the skills of the construction crew and it's very humbling seeing my wonky squares made into something so lovely.

Jux - not nice - hope you get better soon. And poor hands too .
I have done another square in Saffron/Spice /Tomato - just the centre bit out of a bigger 8", had to leave off the nice frill around the edge sadly.....

Salad - I am just the same - it is wonderful how they manage to put these together.

Lurking Constructor here, thank you all.

I would like to say that it's not as hard as it looks! A bit daunting the first time but after that it's pretty straightforward. I lay them out (get a child to arrange them, they do it very well), then do all the vertical joins full length followed by all the horizontal joins full length then pop on a border. If anyone is tempted, perhaps do what I did, join the WH Construction Crew FB page and try it out with one of the WH Refugee blankets when there are some available. A bit less high profile/time pressured than Chernobs/Candys but still very worthwhile.

The squares all look so professional, especially once they're blanketised.

I haven't seen any of mine, but tbh, I'm not sure what project I did them for! I got so mixed up on all the threads Except the ones for Zombie - I know I put a note in for them.

WhoKnows - well done and thank you xxx

Maybe when I pluck up the courage WhoKnows - I am too new a hooker yet! But thanks x
Jux - I have just checked on the fb page , and the ones I saw from you were for Chernobyl - I saved the pic if you want me to pop it on here for you?

The other great thing about joining is you get to see and work with some amazing squares, I often keep photos of individual ones for future reference. In the blanket I am doing now there is a square that I can't stop staring at.

Morning all. I have a question! How on Earth do you manage to knit a pattern in different colours - eg, a red heart on a pink background?

I've tried a few experiments, looked on YouTube, and even borrowed a library book, but I just don't get it.

What do you do with the loose yarn behind the square? Do you cut it on each row?

How do you stop the heart from falling off the border? Even if I twist the yarn together, I end up with holes.

Help!

If you want to do a heart with the same colour border either side, you either have to carry the wool across the back of the heart on each row (Fair Isle style) or you need to have two balls of your background colour on the go. If you do the latter (which is what I did for the rainbow zigzag in Chernobyl blanket 61, if you're seeing them on Facebook), you need to make sure you twist the two colours of wool enough as you change colour. It's called intarsia if that helps google. If you get holes, you're not twisting enough.

Good luck!

Hope you're in less pain today Crafty and you get the op ASAP

Thankyou for all your work Wh0Knows I love seeing all the blankets on FB.

Sitting do you mean a multi-coloured square where it's all crocheted in one (like the photo I've added) or where you do the heart separately and then sew it on to the square at the end?

on Youtube is really good (I started with her videos) and covers the basics. I join my colours with a knot and then either crochet them in as I go very rarely or sew them in afterwards, changing direction a couple of times before I trim them.

Spin you beat me to it and obviously know what you're talking about

I love it on here, every day's a school day

good at bluffing

Sitting - intarsia as Spin says. Its fiddly rather than anything else, trying to keep the tension correct.
Just make sure you work (twist) the wool around every second stitch to anchor it, ( behind your work) until you get to the colour change , and then anchor 'that' wool by twisting in every two stitches . I tend to work it in at least 2-3 stitches before and after the colour change, to prevent holes. You should have smooth flat loops behind you work.

Thank you everyone for all the kind words a support. The Dr this morning said that it'll be a few days at least before the swelling goes down then another xray then whenever they get a slot to operate in. On the plus side I have time in hospital to crochet plenty xx

Every cloud Crafty hopefully it won't be too long

I finished my little hug this afternoon, the border went a little frilly but I quite like it

book, that is so sweet of you! Thank you I would love a copy.

Sitting, what I used to do with changing wool like that (I think - if you have a picture of the square you're doing could you upload it?), was 'carry the wool', that's what mum and my grandmother called it anyway. Don't cut anything yet!

Doing joins can be difficult at first so don't give up. I have tried to describe what I used to do but I haven't been able to knit for over 15 years and I just couldn't remember well enough to describe it clearly, so have deleted my confused/confusing attempts . Really sorry.

I'm sure someone else here will be able to point you at a good vid or describe it better than I can.

That's so pretty, Raptorina! (Just realised that you're not actually Raptorina, but Raptor in a pork pie hat Great name too!

Book that's so kind of you to offer, but don't worry. I shall go to FB in a minute or two and look in the right place! If I can't find them, I'll call out for you, though (bit early for or !).

Weird. That post was not there despite refreshing before I sent te second post, and I thought the first was lost in the aether!

To be a bit less contradictory, book, I shall go to fb, but if I may call on you should I have a problem?

Aaaaagh. Too early. Diurnal cycle is completely messed up and I've lost day/night differential, or something - haven't been to bed at all.

And feelng perky! Is there anyone here who'd like me to bully encourage you to take up crochet?