Zombie and Woolly Hugs. ALL very welcome to join us, come and find out about her legacy of Candy’s Hugs.

[KnottyAndPistey]

Surely the best corner of the Mumsnet, all are welcome here and if seen this for the first time, join us, you'll be glad you did. 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.

A bit of background
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

Raising a glass or two to the fabulous Zombie, we go on together

We have several previous threads now, have a look at the Woolly Hugs topic.

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.

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 dates are October 28th and then January 28th. 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.

We start this new thread having sent out 46 Candy's Hugs to wonderful women, extraordinary, thank you.

Thank you so much xx

Knitting is lovely isn't it - I still knit for family , and special squares
.I rather think the stem ginger biscuits were from M&S that she found the nicest/best

I remember the constant feeling of sickness only too well, I just hope it doesn't last too long for you.

Hope the sickness doesn't get to be too bad stitch

Good thing I read this thread after I'd been shopping and not before. I'd have bought a load of ginger biscuits otherwise. I love them but I'm trying to be good!

Sorry to hear about the anxiety and all that it’s bringing up, Stitchit. No advice or words of wisdom on that front - sorry.

But Sophieis great . I’ve only done Sophie’s Garden though - the universe is a challenge for another time!

Huge hugs for everyone xxxxxxx

If anyone has any time and would like a project, please do join us over here..

Snugs!

Making blankets for Looked After Children, we need you :)

No advice from me either Stitchit but I'm sorry to hear that anxiety is plaguing you.

I'm worrying about Aussie flu too. I have no spleen (and, following his surgery a month ago, neither does our youngest son) so we're deemed at risk and it's now being said that the flu immunisation that we had in September will quite possibly be ineffective against this
I've got to go to the chemist to pick up our son's medication tomorrow and I'm worrying about that, I think I'll go first thing as soon as it opens and take my own pen to sign the prescription form!

Just been sidetracked by the new project, but here I am back again.
I can get going with erm - everything now the constructions are finished :)
Madison I am hoping your son is doing well at the moment after the surgery?
Anxiety is horrid , it takes up so much energy and headspace , so take care both

well, I try to organise mine, as I do tend to be doing two or three projects at the same time usually, depending on how I fancy crafting different colours and what is needed most urgently ( so I do a Candy's, then swap to Kinships, then Manchesters that sort of thing).
I have a large bag behind my chair , and I use that to corral all the finished work into it, but in different carrier/plastic bags -, one the special squares if I have done them, one Kinships , one Candys etc . I just post off when I have enough to make a small parcel up. I have found that the most cost effective way - its £2.90 2nd class , and you can pack it to size ( 45 cm x 35 cm x16 cm) - it allows 2kg, but the size limits the weight IYSWIM? I am rambling - does that even make sense?

Just catching up - I've been laid low with the lurgy since New Year's and now have no voice. (On the plus side, I am 3lb lighter than pre-Xmas, so have lost the Xmas weight and then some...)

Congratulations, Stitchit - I hope the nausea disappears quickly. I am mid-Sophie's Universe atm. It isn't as difficult as you might think. I've had to put mine on hold for a bit because I'm so behind on WH projects

We finally got a cause of death for FIL just before Xmas - aspiration pneumonia - so at least we know now and have a bit of closure.

Here is Sophie back at the end of Nov - I have squared it back up since, but haven't uploaded my more recent photos.

Sophie is on my wish list but I'm not going to get the chance on the foreseeable future as I've got too many other projects to do. One day I will though, in white only.

It's good to see you back Spiral. I'm pleased you've got closure now, and hope that it helps a little with the hurt of loosing your FIL.

I do the same Book, in that I find a suitable sized box and keep going until it's full before sending. It's a good incentive to get squares done quickly, particularly when there's a deadline looming.

Spiral -sadness tinged with relief I bet . Hope the voice comes back soon. That Sophie is lovely !
I am frantically hooking like mad to get some squares sorted before I go away . :)
Witch - I hang onto any plastic parcel bags that come my way , fill it up and then squeeze like fury to get all the air out

Sorry about the sickness, Stitch, hope it's over soon. Have you tried arrowroot? It was good for my pg sickness when I was fed up with the taste of ginger. Under normal circumstances, arrowroot is good for delicate tummies. You can buy packets of the biscuits from both the Co-op and Tesco now (used to be only Co-op round here, but our local Tesco have caught on). Orange packet usually, and often hidden at the end of a shelf behind whatever snacky things they hang from the dividers, like cobnuts, or plastic 'open any jar' type stuff.

I also got some ginger cordial from our local independent health food shop.

Love the picture of your little dd singing "a merry tune"! Where did she hear that lovely, (almost) archaic phrase?

I'm just back from posting off a mixed parcel: Candy squares, refugee hats, a little hug and squares for Slinky and Watcher.

Book thank you, he's fine after the surgery. He was in hospital a bit longer than anticipated and had to be transferred to another hospital as a precaution as the ward he was on closes at weekends (and after waiting from 1pm to 11pm for the ambulance transfer, was subsequently discharged just after breakfast the following morning ). He's now getting over a cold!

I'm now getting back to normal after Christmas (I know! It's January 16th!!) but my husband has had to take holiday so only went back to work yesterday. His boss decided it'd be a good idea if the department my husband manages took all of their annual holiday in their quiet period which is January (he decided this the week leading up to Christmas). He did 'generously' say that he'd honour any that was already authorised so our week in New York is okay, touch wood, but he's in this week, off again next week and then that just leaves him 2 days for the rest of the year (we can think of 4 days that he'll need for midweek weddings and our son's graduation). This means that the plans we had for getting away later in the year are royally screwed as nothing was actually booked and therefore hasn't been authorised. One thing that he always does with some of his holiday is to go camping with our lads but they could hardly do that in January!

Huge hugs for everyone going through sad and difficult times here, was thinking how our Zombie would have loved that folk were coming together through this to give each other support, was very much one of her things.

Got some local lovelies coming over on Feb 2nd to do a big sort of the next Candy's Hugs kits ( refugee etc kits too) so watch out if you are in Construction Crew!

I shall go now and sing some merry tunes

Thank you so much everyone for being so wonderful xxx