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

Thanks Book, so many patterns I want to try but so little time!

I was feeling brace tonight and decided to try something I though was beyond me. I won't lie, there were several frogs but I got there 😁

That's gorgeous Witch
I put off trying to do anything like that for ages, I love doing anything flowery now.

Gorgeous Witch Jan Eaton ?
I am toddling on with scarves in chunky now after all the hats .....!

It is indeed Jan Eaton. I've always looked at the flowers and thought there was no way I could do it. It may have needed several frogs to get it something like, which to me makes it more special 💕

Hello Stitchit -:)
Please don't forget that you can always ask for donated yarn - let K&P know ( though they are just a bit busy at the moment doing the labour intensive craft sale ) :)
There are lots of different bits to WH - have you been and had a look at the website ? HERE - there are all sorts of projects to choose from. I think we all have the ones close to our hearts . I love Candys, and Little Hugs most , but do a bit of everything.

Its not too bad, once you've jumped in. Most of the projects use specific yarn - mainly Stylecraft special DK ( or SSDK for short) in various colour palettes. The refugee project uses almost any yarn if its a complete item, or any DK for blanket squares to join with others .
Oh , poorly toddler - hope you are coping :)

I have a load of Candy‘s squares ready for sending. Hopefully I’ll get around to it next week.

I also have a question can we nominate someone to receive a Candy‘s hug? The person I would like to nominate told us today she is terminal and she is only about 30 or so. She is always smiling and is so lovely. It’s so unfair! She does Pokemon raids with a big group of us and I don’t actually know her address but could try and find out. She’s starting another round of chemo next week.

Ruhr hello! I think the best thing is to message K&P with that request . - Last posting for everything before Christmas is 2nd December

This is her post in the pogo chat from this morning with a few names blocked out.

I'm a bit anxious about whether I should post this or not, but after discussing things with a few of you, I thought it best to be open and honest.

As some of you may know (or guessed from the GI Jane hairstyle) last year I was diagnosed with cancer. It was what got me into Pokemon, as it was useful way to keep myself active during recovery.

I stumbled across at my first raid in Park in August and never looked back. In the last few months I have had an absolute blast, meeting lots of lovely people, many of whom have become great friends!!!

Unfortunately, this month I was diagnosed with grade 4 stage 4 (terminal) cancer.

I am starting chemotherapy this week... largely to give myself time to try to complete my pokedex 😬 😂.

I won't be able to be as active as usual, but I'm hoping to be able to get to a few raids. I'd definitely like the opportunity to thank you guys in person for being such an amazing, inclusive and accepting bunch of heroes!!! I really have had the best few months. Cx

Thanks I will but maybe I should ask the others if anyone knows her address

Ruhr, I am sorry to hear about your friend. Cancer is a bastard, there is doubting that. K & P are lovely and I hope they can help. I would message sooner rather than later though as one never knows how much time there is with this vile disease. 💕

Welcome Stitchit, lovely to see you here. Don't ever worry about your work not being good enough - I only started crotcheting just before Easter with simple granny squares and have only just got adventurous. I used the Bella Coco you tube videos, which are easily understood, to get me started and there's no stopping me now!

The stylecraft wool is lovely to work with - very soft and easy to handle. You do realise that you'll end up with a stash out of control though....

I’ve been lurking a bit of late...

Welcome, Stitchit. I started crochet and knitting more than stst back in January - nearly a year ago!

Sorry to hear about your friend, Ruhr.

Back before I’d ever crocheted anything, OrangeIsTheNewPop was doing a Sophie on one of this threads. I looked like this —>. Now I’ve done a Sophie’s Garden as a little hug! I’ve got a few Candy’s squares to send with it, and I was hoping to put in an Angel Hug too but I had to frog pretty much a whole 50g ball of yarn yesterday so I’m grumpy with it at the moment!

I’ve started on Chernobyl squares. I’m aiming to do a whole blanket, but I’ll see how far I get - I’m doing it in 12” squares so I can always just send them in. Back to work in January though, which might get in the way of crochet. Boo.

Hi Stitchit. Binbags full?

I bought a bookcase which is actually for cds (shelves fixed too close together for books) and I have filled it with SSDK! It looks fabulous with balls on the lower shelves and completed squares on the upper ones. Except all those peskies hanging down are a bit of a give away as to how actually uncompleted they really are

hello Spin - you and velcro baby all okay? That time has flown
I sometimes wonder about Pop , and how she is .
Arghh about the Angel Hug. I am gathering courage to make one .
And snap on getting ahead with Chernobyl. DD and I are at the 'planning' stage :) - We managed to do 32 x 12" squares between us last year, so we too are hoping to get a blanket done between us if possible - saves on expense of sending in squares, sending out again etc, etc. But as you say, RL gets in the way

I have been waiting for a special offer, and Deramores have a 25% off all yarn , including SSDK , so I have taken advantage and bought all the colours we should need. ( This is on top of all the stuff I ordered for my personal winter of WH!!!) I'm not quite sure where it is all going to store ....

No, no, Stitchit! That green face represents envy! I am certainly not going to judge you for having bin bags full, especially when they're full of wool!

Jux - lovely to see you!
I was doing quite well with my wool stash ( non SSDK) - I hd loads still from my DM . I have been trawling through it, making bits for refugees, and then I was donated an enormous bag of someone else's stash , so I could use it for a good cause . My spare bedroom is erm a wool room !
Stitchit - I looked at Tunisian crotchet, and backed away. :)
I'm sure someone on here tried it - was it MrsH ?

Tunisian hooking is on my to do list - I got one free with a magazine and thought it looked really cool.

My stash is getting out of hand but I'm working on decreasing it 😁