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

Lovely MrsH - cbeebies was very productive ! :)
I have just looked at a youtube thingy on Tunisian crochet - I am intrigued . How do you do really big things , when the hook is not that long ( feeling a bit thick here ...!) I suppose maybe as I am really a knitter at heart that it looks interesting .. I still am better at it then crochet by a long chalk . My DM knitted all through my childhood and teens and could knit without ever looking at her hands , and was immensely quick. I knit sedately . I have only started to crotchet this year, when I saw how quickly DD could do Chernobyl squares in comparison to me!
Just parcelled everything up to post off tomorrow - I managed to finish the Billies Blanket , so I can relax, and get a couple of Christmas gifts done, along with finishing a (knitted :) ) neck warmer for DH .

A normal crochet hook is 6" so you can just about do a 6" square on a normal hook (for construction reasons it's better to do 5 and a bit inches and ring with dc or htrc) but a proper Tunisian hook is more like 12" with a knitting needle end so it doesn't fall off.

And you can knit a men's jumper on 12" knitting needles after all

I’ve just had a look at the lovely Bella Coco doing Tunisian crochet. It looks like you could do little things on a normal hook, with a blob of blu-tak on the end.

Yes, there's some really nice Knit Pro sets - you can choose whether to have knit or crochet ends on them, and they sort of screw on and off.

ooh - MrsH - I have just treat myself to interchangeable circular knitting needles from Knit Pro .......

I have a spare 4.5mm crochet hook end for that (Knit Pro - the lovely rainbow wood) if you'd like it? Pm your address x

Thanks for the Christmas decoration and present suggestions. Unfortunately I've had to go to Poland for work so not been a very productive crochet week (although I did manage to get DS a decoration from the Christmas market tonight - festive pic attached - so not a complete waste of time)

Just thinking ahead to when I eventually finish Santa (he now has a body, legs and arms, but no head!) do we think we're best getting a headstart on Chernobyl? Or is there something else in need in the meantime? Hoping for lots of crochet time over Christmas, so may as well spend it well. Not sure I'm brave enough to try Tunisian though!

Note to self. Rotate pictures before attaching. I blame the vodka...

MrsH - just saw that HCat has gone AWOL. Are you okay - please tell me he's turned up?

Chernobs has been open for a while. I think crack on for sheer volume.

No, still awol. Lying awake worrying about him. Going to post in Litter Tray, hence logging on. Have never felt my prayers so unanswered before.

Sorry about Hcat, how long has he been missing?

A few of my Tunisian sample squares attached. I am always too ambitious with my projects though! This blanket will take too long. I keep plodding at it though.

Morning
diamante -lovely pic! Poland and vodka . I am going to get going on Chernobs this week, and just chug along with other bits as well. My Christmas presents are all knits, so I can chop and change a bit.
MrsH - you are a star - but so sorry to hear about your cat - I do hope he turns up soon , they are part of the family , and you worry over them as much as any .
Hep - wow !
well, it has just started to snow here - just flurries, but what a good excuse not to go and dig at my allotment , and stay at home and crotchet

Hep, wow! Just wow!

Well I ‘had a go’ at Tunisian on a normal hook last night, in the middle of a square I’d already started. The tensions do not match!!!!! So one ruined square later, I have decided to put Tunisian aside until another time.......

..... until I saw Hep’s work, and now my fingers are twitching wanting to do that . It’ll be a long time until I get anywhere as good as you, though, Hep.

Another thing about Tunisian is that it’s heavy. My hands and arms were tired and aching after 2 rows, and that was on a 6” hook. And the more stitches I had on the harder it was to wield the hook. But, it’s a nice way to try to rebuild my wasted muscles!

book, snow! How lovely!

Thanks, everyone. Attached Mooface quality controlling a Manchester Hug.

I do find Tunisian quite hard on the wrists, yes. And curly

But OH it's beautiful.

Thank you! I have a zigzag dc method which seems much more stable than my old all-horizontal then all-vertical dc method.

I'm off the Construction list for a while now though as it's a big undertaking. The most difficult bit is the layout as I am not good at imagination, just good at following patterns/recipes

Afternoon
snow interlude ( on and off most of the day) meant I started doing a Candy's construction -
Jux and Stitchit mmm snow lovely? we get it every year, sometimes not much, sometimes a lot, so now its just an interesting nuisance! :)
MrsH - your cat is gorgeous. I am keeping all my positive thoughts beaming across that Mooface turns up safe and sound . I know what you mean about the layout - the one I am starting has been laid out on my spare bed for nearly a week, and I have popped in and tweaked it most days until I thought it looked 'right'- now thats done , I can crack on.
I really fancy the Tunisian crochet now I have had a quick look. A bit heavy as you say, but lovely for cushion covers methinks ....

We have two new blanket projects starting this evening, both lovely Mumsnetters very much in need of a woolly hug.

For Watcher

For Slinky.

If anyone would like to pop over, that would be wonderful xxxx

Your cat is beautiful, MrsH. Hope she comes home soon. I know only too well how worrying it is when your cat wanders off. (Mine have alwys returned, if that’s any comfort.)

We had snow on Saturday book. It seemed to have stopped and was starting to thaw so I took the dog out only for us to get caught in a heavier snowfall. He really wasn't impressed! Neither was I really, I dislike snow and ice with a passion.

MrsH what a worry, I hope your gorgeous cat is home by now

Stitchit I might do our trees at the weekend.

I'm having a bit of a Christmas dilemma. Years ago we invited my parents for Christmas dinner and since then they've just taken it for granted that they come here. They're very stuck in their ways though and it's like bloody Groundhog Day and I really really want a change this year. I want Christmas Day with just the four of us and I'm conscious of the fact that the boys are grown up and there may not be many more Christmas Days when we're all here together. It's a tricky one.