Another extraordinary year, another year filled to the brim with the most wonderful response from YOU our wonderful crew! We are truly uplifted by you all. The dedication and compassion you show is a true force for good. It gives us strength, we hope you feel this too. Just astonishing.
The response and enthusiasm to all our projects has been as bright and bold as ever. The spirit, generosity, love and care, truly feels boundless. We never take any of this for granted. We’ve been able to help so many. Crafters and donors what you do is incredibly special and precious, giving compassion, woolly warmth and comfort to others, especially in these difficult times. We are filled with awe!
So as the old year draws to an end, we love to pause and to reflect upon the Woolly year just gone and although we say this every time, it really has been extraordinary. What a woolly journey we are all on together. Please take a moment to think about what it is you do. Sometimes we get bogged down in pesky ends, posting deadlines, crafting details, we forget to see what it is we are all achieving here for our recipients, together. And it is really precious and special. Thank you!
It was BEYOND WONDERFUL to meet so many of you at our 2025 Hugathons. Our Hugathons are a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow Woolly Huggers who share a love of crafting. They are friendly and inclusive. It is a great time for chatting with your fellow Woolly crew and sharing ideas. We work towards creating squares for a given project, it was Chernobs26 at our most recent Christmas meet up in Oxford. Hugathons are always vibrant and joyful. (With somewhat bonkers games of Bingo) If you worry about not knowing anyone, just let us know in advance and we will link you up, you’ll be glad you came!
We had the most fabulous journey around the UK in 2025! We started with our first Hugathon on February 1st in Brum! Then travelled south to Southampton in March before launching north again in the Autumn to Edinburgh, then back to Oxford for Christmas.
We start our 2026 Hugathons off with a visit to York on January 31st. Link is here, at this moment there are 2 tickets left! All info is in the link… then we are to London (Covent Garden area) on Sat, 21 Mar 2026, onto The Belfast Hugathon – Sat 9th May 2026!
and back to Edinburgh on 19th September. Full details on the last three very soon! We are still working on our Christmas destination 2026 but are aiming for the Gloucester area!
The hugathon is where the WH virtual community crosses over into a face to face community, meeting others who you may have got to know online. It’s so lovely to be able to sit and work and natter together, comparing notes and making friends. It epitomises the spirit of WH, crafters working together to benefit others. Alison
Not one but two summer festivals this year Carry on Crafting was the first and we ran it very much as a drop in knit and natter, for folk to find out about our projects and make us a square for Snugs or Cwtches. It was 38 degrees and we had all the festive yarn out! We even had our Christmas tree so that Cwtch squares could be pegged on! It was lovely to see so many of you there, and thank you again to our wonderful helpers, Jen E, Ali, Os, Our Peg, Hilary and Paula! It was great fun, both on spreading the word and fund-raising front. Thank you for all the balls of wool for the lucky dip, it was so brilliantly successful. We will be repeating that next year, news soon.
And joyfully back to Camp Bestival last summer. We had really missed it in 2024, because of my family’s Olympic tickets! We had the most wonderful time sharing the woolly love, and making a millionty pompoms! The families loved the crafting, at one point we had over 75 crafting with us, and the little Besties raised nearly a thousand pounds on their own. At both events the raffle for the blanket was so successful, thank you to the crafters. We’ve already been invited back To CB! Watch this space. Thank you so much to lovely Paula P for coming on the Sunday, we really needed you!
So onto our projects….
As last year, we are still processing the Poland trip with the visiting Ukrainian children and their incredible teachers. We were still there (at time of writing) less than 3 weeks ago. Exhausting and emotional yes, but our main take away is inspiration, to do more, be more, so glad we could be there. Thank you to the CCLL for letting us tag onto their trip AGAIN and hand out these blankets ourselves. These children have very little, still with the threats from the legacy of Chernobyl, made worse by the Russian invasion of the area, with war looming all around and the impact that has on every part of daily life. But the wonderful CCLL bring these children out for a respite holiday full of games, activities, Christmas fun, warmth, light and love. Its is just wonderful to see as they relax into just being children.
These children are now back in Ukraine with the uncertainty, dangers and chaos, there have been a lot of drone attacks in their area since they got back, it’s beyond awful, with all the fears and anxiety. But they’re all taking love and woolly warmth from us. It doesn’t fix anything but it’s a tangible sign of love and care. So many hugs!
And a huge thank you for all those power banks and torches, they will give the most enormous support to the children and their families, a genuinely precious Christmas gift. They were having at least 16 hours a day of no power before the recent strikes, it will be worse now, hours of daylight are very short and December temperature averages for this region are between 0 degrees down to -4 degrees.
Heartbreaking to see them go, they take our hearts with them.
Thank you to everyone for cutting the fabric strips for our craft activity for these lovely Ukrainian children. We cut, and we cut and we cut. Cut a few more. And again. We need more! Back to cutting. But it was so worth it! The children were so utterly engrossed in this activity, they LOVED the fabrics, the patterns, the texture, the sparkle in some. And every child and teacher (we’d planned for enough) had a gorgeous time and made a beautiful fabric wreath. So a huge thank you!
Our Little Hug project continues apace. We send to the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, which was our original destination. This is a 256-bed hospital specialising in paediatric healthcare for children and young people up to the age of 16. When we first started of course it was Yorkhill. Our other main destination is to Ward 2 at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle. It is a very special thing to be able to do for the whole family. Knit, crochet, fabric – all equally welcomed here. We are very grateful to staff in the hospitals who get them to families. It’s an extra job and we really appreciate it. We do send on request to individuals too and tiny knits with no holes go to the NICU at John Radcliffe in Oxford.
Just a sample, there have been hundreds and all glorious!
We are delighted to have sent big collections of single bed sized Little Hugs to the teen ICUs at Great Ormond Street thank you to our wonderful Catherine at GOSH, and to the teen and young person cancer ward and children’s cancer wards at the Royal Marsden this year.
The Teenage Cancer Trust Unit (TCTU) at The Royal Marsden’s hospital in Sutton is a purpose-built unit for teenagers and young adults aged 16 to 24 years.They are going to share across their (getting the names of the ‘wards’ right) the Oak Centre for Children and Young People which includes:
McElwain Ward (age 1-16)
Teenage Cancer Trust Unit (age 16-24)
Outpatient and Day Care Unit.
Thank you to lovely Lucy Jarvis for getting us linked up, and delivering in person. We can’t thank her enough for this personal touch. Means the world.
Just a beautiful sample of our teen hugs, either to GOSH or to the Marsden
Our first deliveries of Little Hugs are due to go in January to Newcastle and Glasgow. It’s such a privilege getting them ready to go and seeing them leave on their way to the children.
Our Angel Hug project for bereaved families continues strongly, helping families going through incredibly bleak times, with so many supported again this year. We are truly thankful. The plain white Angels go to Glasgow maternity and the pastel ones as shown underneath go to the Haven House Children’s Hospice in London. All truly made and sent with love.
Nine Years of Candy’s Hugs – feels like yesterday
It is always at this time of year we remember beautiful Candy (known as Zombie to some) and remember the conversation we had just before Christmas 2016, hatching a plan to use her wonderful donation to kickstart a new project. Our aim then was to make comforting cosy blankets with love in every stitch for women going through treatment for breast and other cancers, at times forming part of palliative care. Some make separate squares, others whole blankets.We called them Candy’s Hugs. It has turned out to be an incredible legacy, a vibrant rioting legacy. Hundreds have gone to women and girls of all ages, three over this last Christmas period, all bringing cheer and giving love and woolly warmth.
Kinship Hugs too, have been a wonderful blessing. They are an extension of, and in addition to, our existing Little Hug project. We make bigger blankets for folk in need of comfort. So many have gone this year, truly always made and sent with so much love. Sometimes we head into our amazing group known as the Square Squad to make personalised Kinship Blankets, with specific requests for personalised squares. No request ever seems to faze folk! If you feel like you’d like to investigate the Square Squad, do find them on Facebook! This just a sample..
All hail the incredible Woolly Avengers otherwise known as the Construction Crew! What an astonishing bunch of folk. At times our requests (Cwtches, Candy’s, Kinship, Snugs, Refugee blankets, Chernobs) are relentless and often with short notice. For this and several other projects, we could not function without you. The sheer joyful enthusiasm our calls for help is met with makes us so thankful. What wonders you are. And the SPEED OF RESPONSE! Thank you! If you think this sounds like something you’d like to try, come and find us, all welcome.
We sent a VAST number of beautifully knitted hat and scarf gift sets for Care Leavers. These are part of the Christmas Dinners’ project started by the inspirational poet Lemn Sissay. The aim is to create a positive memory, and bring happiness and Christmas joy to this group of 18-25 year olds who can be terribly isolated and lonely, especially around Christmas time.
This year our sets were sent on to Christmas Dinner events in Bristol, London W12, Manchester, Folkestone, Barnsley, Leeds, North Kent, Birmingham and Huddersfield. It’s great to be able to show the brilliant young people attending Christmas Dinner events that we care using needles, yarn and kindness. So THANK YOU! The project continues into 2026!
Our Christmas Cwtch project is now so well established and we know by the response how loved this is. Anyone can join from making one single square to as many blankets as you like!
Our super festive Little Hugs go to very sick children stuck on Ward 2 at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle over Christmas. Sent with love in every stitch for the whole family. As always these are absolutely stunning. Thank you so much everyone, we know these have been loved by families going through incredibly difficult times.Thank you too to lovely Marie Samuels on Ward 2 for all her efforts, she hands them out on Christmas Eve, like the Christmas angel she is!
Cwtches also go to The Royal Marsden teen and children, and are taken and delivered in person by lovely Lucy J. While she was there this year she met a lad in reception who was just starting treatment. Bless his heart. So she helped him choose his blanket there and then. He chose the beauty featured. So much love for him and his family.
Very very special indeed. The most enormous thanks to Lucy. Love to all the children, teens and families at the Marsden
Cwtches continue into 2026 and if possible we’d like to reach MORE children with these, so please do have a think if this could be one for you next year! Link is here…. THANK YOU!
Our Snug project continues as we send woolly love to Looked After Children across the UK. This year to the Fostering and Supported Lodging Service for BCP council (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) It is a wonderful project, making these children something permanent, that they can take with them wherever they are.
We received this email, just before Christmas…
We would like say a BIG Thank you for the beautiful blankets received from you at BCP fostering. They are so beautiful my 3 foster children love them . Thank You for them.
Means the world doesn’t it? Snugs will run again in 2026, same crafting info as this year, destination the Fostering and Supported Lodging Service for BCP council (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) again, they have many more children than we could have reached this year.. This is such a wonderful project, so grateful that we reach as many children as we do. And that is all down to our wonderful, generous crafters. Let’s crack on!
Two more wonderful craft sales took place this year, we LOVE seeing how creative and talented folk are. We know about the wool, but then we find even more talents are abundant. Our Spring Sale raises funds for our own projects, then at Christmas we love to send a donation of the profits to a chosen charity. This Christmas it was wonderful to be able to send to two wonderful Care leaver charities, the Christmas Dinner project and the Rees Foundation https://www.reesfoundation.org. We have included just a few photos of craft from both, in total across the two sales we had 785 items! ASTONISHING!
Really all that is left to say is THANK YOU!
Thank you again for every moment of thought given to our projects, every piece of ours you have read, the likes, shares, every SINGLE stitch, ball of yarn, search for pattern or idea, every single penny spent, every choice from our Amazon wishlist, every penny donated or raised, every single moment, every BLOOMIN pesky end, every ounce of support, every resource, every Post office queue, everything!
Thank you too to all on our wonderful Woolly Pack Facebook page for being marvellous. Come and find us if you’re not already there, it is our friendly and welcoming virtual pub! An extension to our regular Woolly Hugs page. All welcome to join, it’s a Facebook group with a positive chatty environment, sometimes wool chat, often not, offering support whilst avoiding doom & gloom. Contribute as much as you like. No selling, no spam, no abuse, only support and kindness permitted. It’s a fabulous place to be, all we hoped for and more! Thank you so much to our wonderful admins, Caroline, Ali, Lisa, Steph, Jo, Jen, Alexsis without whom it wouldn’t be The link is here hopefully…
2026 is on its way, here’s to a wool packed year of helping as many folk as we can, supporting and encouraging, raising each other up, we couldn’t be more inspired and humbled by the woolly crew. It’s the togetherness. All love for the new year, keep well, stay safe, we need you all! G&G xxx
