Saturday 6 December 2014

Hexagon Love




I mentioned before that I had started a new Granny Stripe blanket with leftover yarn. Well, that project is coming on a treat, but in the process of writing about it I had looked up the link for my Cuddly Hexagon Blanket.

I started the hexie blanket back in April, and I last worked on it that same month before we packed up and moved house. It has been sadly neglected ever since, at a mere 26 hexagons big.

April 2014


The main reason for this neglect is totally forgivable I think, as I was working like crazy to finish the Glastonbury and Walled Garden blankets, so I didn’t feel too bad about it.

But having realised how long it was since I had worked on it, and having begun yet another new project while the hexies were still on the go, I felt a bit bad. So I decided to crack on and sort out the horrible yarn mess that the movers had made of my stash. I sorted it back into plastic tubs (I couldn’t bring my lovely natural product yarn baskets) based on fibre – so acrylic is kept separate from wools – and also separated yarn allocated for specific projects so that it is easy to find when I come to it.

This meant that I now had 1 tub with all of the Cuddly Hexagons’ Stylecraft Life DK yarn neatly sorted, and while I was doing this I sort of fell back in love with this poor neglected project:)

I couldn’t resist this little smooshy pile of hexagonal hooky :)



I idly started work on it again in between other work – a few in between granny stripes. A few in between Frozen hooky bits, one here and there before heading out to meet people, or while having a tea break from building flat pack furniture (something very strange about me, I really enjoy putting together furniture!)

Very soon it was looking much more substantial, and I realised that I should record progress!!



My colour placement in this blanket is not truly random – it’s not planned and doesn’t follow a specific pattern or anything, but I do choose the colours with some deliberation. It’s much harder to keep the colours separate with hexagons than it is with squares, so I haven’t always managed to stick to my rules; but I aim to make it so that a) no hexagon is connected to the same outer colour as itself at all – easy! And b) no hexagon is joined to the same outer colour more than once – sounds easy enough, but I’ve managed to fail a couple of times! This doesn’t leap out at you though, so I’m not too bothered. Otherwise, I just try to keep it so that it doesn’t get too dark or too light in any one area, which I think is working.

I have two methods for choosing the colours, depending on how I feel. First up, if I’m feeling focussed, then I’ll look at the next space and decide the outer colour I want to put there.

Please excuse the poor picture quality - not great light when I took these! And the blue is nowhere near that bright!



Then I’ll choose the 3rd round colour that I think will look good with it…



Then the 2nd and 1st rounds – you get the idea :)



With the colours lined up, it’s easy to get hooking – round 1…



And 2 and 3…



Then the final round hooks it into place, joining as I go :)

REALLY bad light now, sorry!


If I’m feeling less organised, or I just don’t fancy thinking too much about it because I’m watching TV or something, then I’ll just hook up a little pile of circles (the first 3 rounds).



Then later on I’ll sit and decide what outer colour would look good for each circle, and where that would fit in the blanket. Easy!

So easy, that in just a few days the hexies have grown into this! Yay!



It's still a long way off being an actual blanket, but it's good to see it come back to life rather than languishing in a messy heap. As this is a for-me-blanket, then I'm sure it will continue to take a back seat to other projects for others as they come up, but I know it will be happy to see me whenever I do pick it up and work on it! 


2 comments:

  1. Debbie that looks fab. Is it easy to join on the go? When I have my two WIP' s done, I think I will do a hexie as a stash buster xx

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I love it, but it is really far too hot for making woolly blankets! I hope I feel the chill when the 'winter' evenings arrive so I can get to use it!
      I find it pretty easy to join on the go, as long as I am happy about colour selection. Planning the next patch from the outside inwards is helping me with that though for the random look. If you were doing a planned arrangement then of course you would need to stick to the plan for the order you put them together!
      I've noticed that my joining differs very slightly from most of the other joining-on-the-go pieces that I've seen, so I might try to do a quick photo tutorial thingy about what I do. (It really is only a slight difference though!)
      I'm looking forward to seeing your hexies now too!!
      Dxx

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