The Great Woolly Hugs’ Hugathon in Edinburgh takes place on Saturday 28th September 2024, between 11.00am and 3.30pm, at St Columba’s by the Castle Church Hall in central Edinburgh, just off the Royal Mile, close to Edinburgh Castle.

Our Venue is fully accessible. Access to the venue is via a gentle and wheelchair-friendly ramp from the street pavement and there is a lift to the level of the hall and garden area downstairs. There are accessible bathroom facilities.

Tickets cost £20 each. On Sale from 7pm from June 1st 2024.

Click here for the Eventbrite link.

Our Hugathons are a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow Woolly Huggers who share a love of crafting.They are very friendly and inclusive. It is a great time for chatting with your fellow Woolly crew and sharing ideas. If Tortie behaves we will let him come too! We’ve included some testimonials from folk who have been to one before, which might be useful if this is your first time.

During the Hugathon we will attempt to get as many 6 inch squares made. In Edinburgh we are focussing on our Snug Project 2024.   We will provide all SSDK, but please remember to bring your 4mm hooks/knitting needles, you will need them! If you have any squares already made for THIS project ONLY, please bring them, it may be that we can get some kits out for construction.

We will also be running a rather fabulous Lucky Dip (£1 a go) and our legendary Gin Raffle (£1 a ticket)  We will also be running a DeStash table. If you have crafting items to donate to our DeStash table please do bring, remember one person’s destash is another person’s treasure!

And finally we will play our Yarn Bingo game, you will not want to miss this!

We have use of the kitchen area, and will provide the wherewithal for making tea and coffee for a donation. Bring a packed lunch, snacks and drinks, we won’t judge if that is alcohol!

We will be flying to Edinburgh so will be unable to take any completed treasure home, apologies for this, we have limited luggage allowance.

Do join us, we’d love to meet you or see you again. And if you are worried about not knowing anyone, let us know and we can get you seated and chatting as quick as a flash.

Some of you will remember our Panda Picnic back in 2021, making bonding squares for the tiniest babies at the Rosie in Cambridge and for their PaNDR ( Paediatric and Neonatal Decision Support and Retrieval Service).

We are delighted to have been approached by another neonatal transport team, this time in the North West – Connect NW (www.connectnw.baby) who cover the 21 neonatal units of the NW Operational Delivery Network (NWNODN) – made up of Greater Manchester, Lancashire & S.Cumbria and Cheshire & Mersey Neonatal Networks.

They are consistently one of the busiest neonatal transport teams year on year carrying out in the region of 150+ transfers a month and an average of 2000 a year!

This fabulous team have heard of our work with the (equally fabulous) Cambridge team and would like something very similar. Their team ‘colour’ is purple so they are thinking along the lines of some purple themed bonding squares, and also some purple hearts for them to leave with mums when they transfer their babies. You can see how comforting that would be. Very special at a time of incredible anxiety.

What are bonding squares? 

Bonding Squares are knitted in matching pairs. One square is placed with a premature baby and another is worn against the mum’s skin, then the squares are swapped round every 12 hours or every time mum visits. They help with the bonding of a premature baby in an incubator and the baby’s mum. Also can help with breastfeeding in time.

We know that with your love and support we can do this very easily! Please read the crafting info carefully

Part One – Bonding Squares Crafting Info

Please read carefully as only items meeting the criteria will go on to the team!

• This is only a job for knitters, so hookers, now is the time to learn if you can’t knit yet! We’d like garter knit or moss stitch only squares as the stitches are perfect, dense yet with the necessary movement to them, ie not too stiff.
• Squares to be 6 inches NO BIGGER please.
• We are using Stylecraft Special DK – Proper Purple (1855) only so it ties in with their colour theme, and we know it will be consistent in wash and use.
• No intarsia, lacy bits, holes, embroidery, loops, flaps, or appliqués.
• Squares must be able to lie flat independently. No curling
• When finished or changing colour, ends must be incredibly tightly tied off leaving a 6 inch tail, use a needle to sew this in please.
• No blocking please.
• Pairs must match, when you send please tie in pairs with a bit of wool.
• Thank you so much for helping!

Posting will be Teddington. Deadline is June 1st for our first collection, after which we will reassess what is needed and the time frame!

Part Two – Hearts’ Crafting Info

We would like to collect crochet, knitted or stitched 3D hearts (so not single sided) these to be no bigger than 20cm MAX and to have a hanging loop. They need to be 3D, so with some padding please. Other than this the style is very much up to you. If using yarn, please go for Stylecraft Special Proper Purple DK as the purple. If using fabric, please go as close as possible to a Cadbury purple, to be similar. 

Each pair of squares and each heart is another family helped. Let’s try to help as many as possible? Huge thanks lovely Woollies, as always you totally rock

G&G