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

CraftyGirl. Hello 😊. Good to see you again. I haven been around much either, but I’m hoping to be here more now.

A year on from losing Zombie I had a drink & lit a candle. I should have posted on here too...I’m not sure why I didn’t really. Zombie’s threads were always a ‘good’ place to be. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, almost always funny...just a ‘good’ feeling of people being ‘real’.

Anyway, have you seen the notice for the meet up in Portsmouth at the end of September? Plenty of notice to plan & save up the pennies...’tickets’ (£10) are limited & go on sale on the 17th of April
Details here Hug Event

ChippingIn no, I didn't kbow about the meet up? What date is it? I may need to book time off work if I can get it x

Chipping I've checked the dates and I can't take that weekend off work as I'm going to Spain with family less a few days after that. Hope there's going to be another Hug Event in the future x

Chipping - the tickets go on sale 16th April - hope you can come :) ( and I hope I can too! )

Crafty Sorry I gave you the wrong date for the ticket sale. You do realise the actual event is in September?

bookbook. Thank you. I think my brain —is well past it’s best before— mixed the day & time up. Grrr. I’ve changed the notification in my phone!

If K&P don’t mind a very naughty WHer coming, then I’ll definitely come. I’ve already been browsing Bookings.com & AirBNB. It’s only a couple of hours from me, so I could do a day trip, but I rather fancy the idea of a relaxed weekend down there with whoever else decides to stay.

Hi all. Not been a very good Wooly Hugger lately. Have taken a break due to ill health. But would really like to go to the Portmouth event if possible, even though I live hours away. Just in process of buying a camper van, so now to persuaded DH to take me. Just hope there are enough tickets to go around!

Hi Claire I’ve said the same as you (on another thread). The Chernobyl 2018 I think.

I’m wondering if it’s possible for K&P to increase the numbers if it gets to 50? I really want to go, but I don’t want to take a place from someone who has been much more active on WH projects this year.

Maybe if there are too many people we could have a ‘sit & knit’ outside your camper 😊.

"I knitted the squares that make up this blanket while my precious daughter K was having treatment for breast cancer. She had received a Candy's Hugs blanket through her best friend J and it gave her comfort and support during the darker days.

I wanted to give someone else that feeling of 'you are not alone' so every stitch in these squares has been made with love, support and hope. Now K and I are sending this with all our best wishes that you like K will come through all the trials knowing that not only your friends and family are supporting you but everyone whose life has been affected by cancer.

With all our best wishes for long and healthy future
J&K"

For anyone who has made, supported, requested or received a Candy's Hug ❤️ So much more than just a blanket isn't it?

Thank you so much everyone, what you do is extraordinary xxx

Yes. They are aren’t they xx

I think it is lovely and very brave to send the blanket she made while going through so much with K. There will be HUGE hugs in there.

Lots of love to them xx

I may have something in my eye, that's beautiful!

😁😁😁😁

I have my 🎟 & my

...very excited!!

Oh dear, that emoticon really doesn’t work on MN!

I was going more for dental issues!

I may be slightly jealous of those with tickets. I need another day in a week so I can squeeze in crochet - I'm up to my eyes in Scout stuff so haven't had time to do anything else. 😔

WitchDancer. Can’t you come 🙁. Anything we can help with?

I'm with you in the jealous corner Witch, I'm so sad that I'm going to have to miss this event

I'm going to get some Candy squares done, once my mother in law has gone back home that is. Crochet brings on too many questions and she can't understand why I do what I do. I did one after she'd gone to bed last night though.

Have just started a thread re the Hugathon, if anyone would like to help bump it for a bit that would be fab!

Here....

K&P thank you for starting the thread 😊. I’ve done more than my fair share of bumping, I promise to crochet for a bit to stop my over excited babbling on . You’d think I never got out of the house 🤣😂

Madison how often does she visit? She seems to be there an awful lot. You’re very patient, my patio would be re paved by now. How is DS now? How are you?

Thanks for the offer Chipping, but shy of actually stepping up as a leader not a lot can help right now. I do enjoy what I do, and working with young people but I'm on my knees with tiredness at the moment!

I'm just going to wait to hear all about it from you lot and pretend I was there 😂

WitchDancer. I hope you get someone offering to step up, or even just generally some help 💐.

I’ll do some live posts and post some photos of Wool Mountains (and any people willing to be in the photos, but I assume most wont want to be. Me for one 🤣).

Maybe you’ll be able to come to the next one 😊

Thanks Chipping, I'm sure we'll get more leaders but it's going to take time following a bit of upheaval in the group. I'm still tired but have actually had time to knock up some granny squares today, so I feel a little better!

St George's day parade tomorrow and then an afternoon sewing on badges for me, followed by a treat of more squares 😁

I’m glad you’ve had time for a bit of crochet therapy. I hope tomorrow all goes to plan!

Morning lovely people. It’s Zombie’s birthday today. Sitting in the sun here with a mug of coffee and happy memories. Will toast her properly later xxx

🍺 to Zombie, greatly missed

Happy birthday, Z, watching her legacy with a no doubt!

I've been a bit busy at my allotment today, but planning to sit down tonight, crochet a square for Candys Hugs , and have a in memory :).