Category: Latest

Last posting for crafts please – October 19th. This is to Teddington. Earlier rather than later is much much easier on us though!

THANK YOU!

We know this feels super early, but we also know our lovely crafters like to plan and that crafting takes such a long time. We are delighted though to be launching our Christmas Craft Sale 2026, we hope you will join us. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and will help us raise much needed funds to continue our woolly work. With your love and support we hope it is a huge success! THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!

The charity we shall support with a shared of funds raised this Christmas will be Air Ambulances UK (AAUK) This is the national charity that supports the lifesaving work of the UK’s air ambulance charities, helping them save even more lives every day. Read more about them here….

So every penny we can raise will go to help others, we hope you will support us, either by crafting, buying or even maybe both! Thank you so so much.

So let the Crafting Stage begin!

Important update – we have become a victim of our own success with the craft sale, don’t get us wrong we are truly grateful for every item and need the fundraising, but with sensible heads on, and to make this a manageable endeavour, no more than 8 items per individual crafter, 12 total if sending from a crafting group.

We are aiming to make and sell small/lightweight Christmas craft items. We are open to larger items too obviously, that is just a guide. Some suggestions for you, but we are very open to others too…

• Stocking fillers, although obviously Father Christmas is REAL, this is just to help.
• Christmas tree decorations.  Always very popular, as are totally bonkers quirky things, yes we are thinking gin wreaths, woolly slugs and sock pigs, who knew??!  
• Stockings
• Cute cuddly things / Besties
• Small gifts – Little bags, purses, brooches, hair accessories, key rings, gift bags, tags,
• Clothing items such as gloves, hats, scarves, – if making clothing PLEASE inc the ball band or let us know so we can pass this info on to those who buy. xxx
• Bunting – everyone LOVES bunting. This could be sewn, knitted, crocheted etc.
• Pocket friends, no bigger than palm size. Would suggest cute.
• Book marks
• Covered tape measures
• Sewing type needle cases
• Wreaths
• Coasters
• Cards
• Lavender bags

• Pencil/ hook cases
• Hair accessories
• Brooches
• Keyring/bag tags
• Pin cushions
• face scrubbies
• Covered notebooks
• Animal headbands
• Lovely lovely things!
• Woolly, fabric, embroidered, beaded, ALL crafty crafts welcome!!

The Event itself..

November 7th – 15th The event itself will take place as usual all online through a Facebook event page and an Auction site attached to this website.

Just a few items from previous sales to give you an idea!

We go on our summer break immediately after Camp Bestival on Sunday 2nd August (posting to us stops for the summer on July 1st) and we will be back on September 18th. It has been another busy year so far and we can’t thank everyone enough for all your hard work, compassion and enthusiasm.

We know that many of you love a summer break project, some of you certainly need to be kept out of mischief and if you need yarn to take part, please do message us.

This is such a beautiful project, we know in Newcastle staff go round on Christmas Eve with our Cwtches and tuck children in. Just lovely. It’s so tough to be so ill, with all the anxieties and emotions this brings, but this intensifies for the child and the whole family over the Christmas period. So it’s wonderful to do something which brings some joy.

We are hoping to achieve our revised Christmas Cwtch project target of 50+. Size wise we are aiming to send a mix of sizes from smaller sized (Remember this project is included in Size Up September, minimum is now 32 inch) up to single bed sized.The majority will need to be at the bigger end. Last year we managed to send to our friends at Newcastle as usual plus the teen unit at the Marsden, we were 3 short of a complete set for the children’s ward at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital, obviously we sent other blankets so there were enough! If we had any over we’d send to elderly care at Newcastle, as they are often overlooked. Is this too much to aim for? We don’t think so. (aiming for the stars again!) We will though need to up our numbers of single bed sized blankets, and the easiest way to do this is to make squares! Obviously if you are up for a whole blanket that is truly excellent, thank you!

All crafting info for this project is here…..

For the woollies…….

Six and twelve inch squares in Stylecraft Special DK, colours as listed

• Claret
• Cream
• Grass Green
• Kelly green
• Green
• Lipstick

For the fabric folk…..

Christmas cwtches could also be made in these sort of colours in cotton Christmassy prints, lightweight quilts. These must be machine washable and tumble dry possible only please.

Thank you so much! October 5th, Last posting for squares AND whole blanket for Christmas Cwtches.

Merry Summer Christmas folks! And thank you – you are ALL GOING ON THE NICE LIST!!!!

Following communication with our partner hospitals we are going to need to increase the size of our smallest blankets. This will affect Little Hugs, Cwtches, Angel Hugs (with the exception of those using the Sands pattern which is fine to continue to use) and we will include those for Haven House Hospice in this. This will help find every blanket a home moving forward. We have to make sure we are making what your recipients want to receive.

If you have made at our smaller size for any of these projects, please still send. But from September our minimum accepted size will be 32 inches.

We appreciate that this is a significant change, but as we say this is driven by the hospitals we support. If you will find this too much, maybe look to the projects which will accept squares, we are hoping not to lose any of our crafters!

Thank you you so so much G&G

Step 1. Huge thanks for all the Besties coming in, the children adore these. We sold over £1000 last year. Just wow! Still time for more – the deadline is July 1st. Thank you!

Step 2. How to help us by purchasing resources.

The children loved making pompoms last year, parents donated to Woolly Hugs for these craft workshops, and it was a fabulous opportunity to chat about the work Woolly Hugs does. The number of crafters was pretty limited by the number of kits we had. So if anyone would like to buy us a set or two, thank you so so much, have a look here (at scissors and pompom makers) We also sold 60 kits of two little balls of yarn, we’d purchased, two pompom makers, then a pair of scissors for extra (where we had them). These kits were super popular and we could have sold more.

If you do Amazon wish lists, we have one under Woolly Hugs, but we have also C&P some links below. Please send directly to Teddington, thank you so much.

4 Sizes (small to large) of Pom Pom Maker Set for DIY Pompom

Pompom Maker Kit 

4 Pieces Of Embroidery Scissors, Metal Scissors, Multifunctional Hand Scissors

Embroidery Scissors Stainless Small Craft Scissors 

Two festivals again this summer, because one is never enough! Firstly we are back to Carry on Crafting between July 11th and 12th. This is held at the South of England Showground, Ardingley.

And secondly, Woolly Hugs is headlining (in our hearts) at Camp Bestival between July 30th – August 2nd. Well we are ACTUALLY having a charity stall! 

Please come and find us at either event if you are attending! 

At Carry on Crafting we plan to run Hugathon type workshop sessions throughout the weekend, focusing on our Cwtch project,  getting folk to make 6 inch squares.  We will be providing yarn. There is no booking needed for this, it will be a drop in activity.  It worked brilliantly over the last two years.. Hopefully it will be busy and great fun again. We will again be accepting ££ donations and spreading the woolly word. As last year (and nearer the time) we will make a blanket to raffle. This was extremely popular and a great fundraiser.

At Camp Bestival we will be again spreading the woolly word and running drop in pompom making sessions for families for a ££ donation, selling Besties and raffling a blanket like last year!

How to help by making BESTIES! THANK YOU!

The theme of Camp Bestival 2026 is ‘At the Beach’ so anything in this theme would be perfect, but any other animals would be perfect too.

So we are looking for small handheld 3D pocket friends. Sewn, knitted, crocheted. Cute or quirky. These sold incredibly well in previous years, over £1000 just in Besties last year, and with your love and support they will again. Because of the age range particularly at Camp Bestival, no buttons, sequins etc, ie nothing which can be a choking risk. Safety eyes or embroidered eyes only.

Last posting for Camp Bestival is 1st July, to Teddington, please write BESTIES on the outside! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you so much for joining us.  All funds raised will go directly into our own Woolly Hug projects. Every penny raised will go to help others, we hope you will support us, either by crafting, buying or even maybe both! Thank you so so much. x

Crafting info…

We would love our crafters to make Spring/Easter craft items, and to keep postage costs to a minimum we ask that ideally anything made can be sent on to a buyer in a large envelope. We are open to larger items too obviously, that is just a guide. We will then sell these beauties through the sale.

Some suggestions for you, but we are very open to others too…

1. Spring and Easter decorations, bunting, cards, garlands, Easter egg themes etc
2. Anything sheep wise is always SUPER popular!
3. Small gifts – Little bags, purses, brooches, hair accessories, key rings, gift bags, tags, not too many of one design helps.
4. Clothing – PLEASE no winter hats or scarves, please think spring/summer. Any that arrive we will keep for the Christmas sale later this year. PLEASE include the yarn type or ball band so we can let folk know how to wash their new treasure. Socks are always very popular!
5. Woolly, fabric, card, embroidered, beaded, all crafty crafts welcome!!
6. Lovely lovely things!

NB – PLEASE INCLUDE NAMES OF PATTERN DESIGNERS WHERE APPROPRIATE SO WE CAN CREDIT THEM. THANK YOU!

Absolute last posting for crafts to be Saturday 28th February please, earlier is better for us if at all possible. Thank you!

Please message for the posting information if you need, but it will be Teddington.

The Event itself…

Our Spring/Easter 2026 Craft sale and Auction will take place ONLINE on a Facebook Event page and our own Auction site attached to this website as before, between Monday 9th March and Sunday 15th March.

We are keeping it all crossed that this Sale will be a huge success, with your love and support we have every confidence, huge heartfelt thanks.

THANK YOU!!!!