Woolly Hugs. Making a true celebration of the wonderful WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo, can you help?

[KnottyAndPistey]

WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo (Chrissie) touched the lives of so many, ours included, and it is incredibly sad to think she is gone. Leslie was an extraordinary generous, compassionate soul and we were lucky to know her, she was inspirational and gave unstinting support to many people on this site and elsewhere too. She was just 28 when she died, only 21 when she was diagnosed with a genetic colon cancer. Life has been very cruel, absolutely tragic.

Leslie was an absolute rock to those folk on the Mumsnet cancer support threads, she organised them for years, always making time for others even when she was so ill herself, many handholds offered, gently encouraging, wise beyond her years, and the threads that still run are a legacy, a truly loving, giving, supportive safe place.

She was an absolute stalwart on the Woolly Hug threads, always ready to join in, ready to help someone else. She and her parents have made so many gorgeous things over the years, super snuggly scarves and mittens for refugees, Billie's Blankets for children with cancer. Extraordinary. So many children and adults feeling their love and support, both at home in the UK and much further afield.

There aren’t enough words to explain how highly we thought of her, how much she was loved on here. We can all learn from her, anyone who came into contact with her did.

We have written to her wonderful folks and we are so glad they have accepted our offer of a Woolly Hug, so glad we can do this for her. Her wonderful friend @TwitterQueen has been fabulous in helping with ideas, colours etc and this has been great. We see this blanket as a tribute to Chrissie a celebration of her and we hope you will be able to help us.

We have some ideas from TQ, but different folk knew her differently, so please do make what is right for your own tribute.

Chrissie was a lifelong veggie with a huge love of cheese!

She also loved pizza, ice cream and cake!

She had two big bunny rabbits called Marigold and Juniper!

She loved the pusheen character and had some very jaunty PJs.

She loved knitting and crochet and had wonderfully impressive skills.

She loved her shoes! Glitzy and glam ideally with sparkles, she saved her best pairs for the chemo ward.

Her name WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo comes form the NBC comedy Parks and Rec - find it, give it a go, we love it too.

Lots of beautiful ideas for squares, but please don’t feel daunted, simple squares are needed too.

The Yarn we are Using….
Artesano Superwash Merino DK
Debbie Bliss Rialto DK
Drops Merino Extra Fine DK
Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK
Katia Merino 100% DK
King Cole Luxury Merino DK (new this time)
Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK
Patons Merino Extrafine DK

Colourwise…
Limes to mid green. not dark please.
Mid to light blues
Oranges
Plum type purple
Teals
Then for accents and embellishments (not whole squares)
Pinks
Red, but one of these two please, Drops Merino Extra Fine 11 Red, or Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK WM6 ‘Ruby’ please
Cream but please one of the following - Debbie Bliss Rialto DK 02 ecru, Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK WM4 cream, or Drops Merino 01 off white
Taupe - Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK WM7 Taupe
Stone - Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK WM9 Beige, Debbie Bliss Rialto 06 Stone
Yellow please Drops merino extra fine DK no 24 ‘light yellow’

It would be lovely to have some sparkle in this blanket, so any sparkly thread is fine but just for embellishments please, we need to know the blanket can still be machine washable. We will certainly add some into the border too.

Simple or complex, made by beginner or expert, we genuinely welcome them all. It really is the love and thought that counts.*

Squares to be six inches, using 4mm needles or hook. Please knot off VERY carefully when finishing or changing colour and sew your ends in, thank you! Previous blankets can be seen on our website

When ready for posting, it will be the Teddington address, if you would like to include a card for Chrissie’s family, please do, we will pass it on.

She looked after so many here on Mumsnet, time to do something for her now

Sending so much love

Hi all, I have only just seen this thread.

Meeting Leslie in person was fabulous, I’m sad it was only the once & that she won’t be at the WoollyHugs Event in Sept.

Despite only meeting her in person once she’s had a huge impact on my outlook on life and I think of her very often.

I honestly cannot believe the woman I met last Sept is no longer here (in person, she’ll always be ‘here on MN & in many of our hearts) it just doesn’t seem possible that she’s ‘gone’

A blanket for her much loved parents is a great idea and maybe if there are any duplicates or spares a few could be put together for her much adored sister ?

I wish my skills were up to those of some others ( bookbook for example, but they aren’t - well not if you want them this year! So mine will probably be quite plain, but made with a lot of love & admiration for the star that is Leslie

Thanks K&P for enabling us to do this xx

Posting will be from 2nd September to the 13th September.
That allows us to sort before the official Woolly Hugs posting date.

Evening
lovely to see you Chipping - low carbing I assume ! and you are too kind - there are many more skilled than I am .
But I have done the first square to start - a nod to Leslie's love of glitzy shoes , with much love in the stitches

I love that square @bookbook 🥰

Li'l Sebastian would be a lovely Parks and Rec square.... wish I was crafty!

Oh bookbook!

My funniest Parks and Rec is where they fall down the hole

Chipping! Lovely to see you, so glad Leslie was well enough to make the Hugathon last year, having known her on here for about 7 years, to actually meet her was overwhelming for us. I know we al hate the MN royalty thing rightly so, but she really was something of a legend to us

We've lost another friend to the bastard cancer who was at the Hugathon, two of them in that time, she was MOS, think in September we need to toast our absent friends :(

We don't have this in the OP, but thinking it would be great to have the family's initials on this blanket, if anyone can

M, M C and R

Knots and I had also decided that our charity at Christmas with our craft sale will be the wonderful Shine Cancer Support, which exists exclusively to support adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s who have experience a cancer diagnosis. They were amazing for Leslie. But that is for another day xxx

Oh that's a great idea K&P.

I will do a square or 3 over the summer holiday. Have wool.

That sounds perfect, let's hope that it's a record breaking sale ❤️

My husband maintains that Parks and Rec isn't funny. Thinking of Leslie and her blanket made me put it on the TV in the kitchen while I was making dinner last night and I caught him laughing at it.

We visited Pasadena a couple of years ago and you wouldn't believe how excited I got when we parked by the City Hall there and I realised that it's actually used as the outside of Pawnee City Hall 😂

I can make squares and I have wool already too

I'm in, away to pm now.

I would like to donate yarn - I'll pm .

I've managed to find the details for donating funds, hidden away in my PMs. So I've sent a contribution to be used for Leslie's blanket or anywhere else it's needed

I will do some squares

#2 , with much love

That's gorgeous, bookbook.

So cute @bookbook

I’ll do some squares. Leslie was great. It’s so sad that she’s died. I have enough of the right yarn in my stash.

Morning all

book - that is so perfect, thank you xxxx

Knotty - is Pomeray extra fine merino and perisian sky in the same wool suitable please? If not I'll need wool please x

I have 6 unopened balls of King Cole Cosmos in Orbit i can donate? I bought it for a current project but no longer needed.

I'm so sorry to hear this news and I'd be happy to donate wool.

Please match me up with a crafter @KnottyAndPistey