...And If There's One Thing I Love

It would have to be....having all the wonderful post you're waiting for turn up at once! That's what happened today. I heard something come through the letterbox and was rather disappointed to see it was a load of junk mail being delivered to every house. Then a couple of minutes later the postman returned with another load of stuff to shove through the lettterbox...and it was all for me!

First up is the hexagons I ordered just the other day from littlepieceofengland on Ebay. Along with the hexagons, there were a couple of leaflets with patterns on. One for a tea cosy, one for a bag and the other for a simple cushion. I'm not sure if I'll ever get round to making them but it was a lovely surprise in the parcel.

Next up was my Kona cotton in Snow. This came beautifully wrapped from Simply Solids.

Last, but by no means least, was my belated birthday present from my husband. There was a card apologising from the delay in dispatch and a discount code for my next purchase.

There were two large rolls of washi tape and 3 small reels. These little reels are just gorgeous, like miniature wooden cotton reels.

Actually the little reels are so pretty I'm going to find it difficult to use them!

 

FO: Hexagon Blanket, Granny Square & Spotty Cushion Covers

So I finally finished the Hexagon Blanket. I don't have accurate amounts for the yarn used because I started with leftovers from the granny ripple blanket. Basically I finished the leftovers and used 1 more ball of each colour, plus maybe half a ball to finish the border rounds.

The first 6 rounds of the hexagons were made in various combinations of lipstick, teal, grey & graphite Stylecraft Special DK. There are no repeated hexagons. Then each of the 39 hexagons had a final seventh round added in parchment, joining each as I went along. I then added the first border round in parchment. I couldn't quite decide what colour to use for the second border round but decided that the first parchement round didn't really look like a border, so I added the second border round in parchment too. I did then ponder adding a third round but decided against it, or rather my husband did.

So, we changed the cover on the sofa so that I could display the blanket nicely:

This gave me an idea of leaving it on the sofa. Of course it needed cushions...luckily I'd finished the granny square cushion cover by sewing three buttons on (that's been waiting a while because it's one of those 5 minute jobs you just never get round to).

And then I dashed into the kitchen to whizz up a couple of spotty cushion covers with the sewing machine. These only took about 20 minutes. They're made with Cath Kidston fabric that I've had for ages. I bought it when visiting the in-laws a few years ago. It had 25% off and I planned to make a bag with it but never got round to it. I am so glad I didn't because I think the cushions look fab! What do you think?

WIP: Hexagon Blanket

Do you remember this big pile of hexagons?

Well, on Monday I put Orla down for a nap and half an hour later she walked through the living room door. Yes, it appears she's on the verge of dropping her nap. So yesterday when she asked to go to bed I sat watching tv for a bit to make sure she'd gone to sleep before starting studying (good plan it was too, she was up 20 minutes later). That big pile was sat there taunting me ;-) so I started the long, boring task of weaving the ends in.

Do you know, virtually all those hexagons have 12 ends to weave in EACH???!!!??? There's 39 hexagons and I think I figured out there were 438 ends. By the time I went to bed last night I'd weaved in the ends on 35 of the hexagons, Alan had done the other 4.

I also started joining them together and have now got 14 of them joined. I decided to use the Join As You Go method for a couple of reasons:

First, and probably the most important one, I was totally sick of weaving in ends and the thought of adding another round to each of those damn hexagons and having another 76 ends to weave in before starting to join them filled me with dread!

Secondly, I rarely use the join as you go method with granny squares as I prefer to slip stitch in the back loops so it was a good excuse to use a different method.

So here's my progress so far:

I've left a few ends to weave in at the end so that I know which side I started with. I chose the position of the hexagons before starting to join by laying them out on the living room floor and moving them around until I was happy with the look. I've now got them in piles for each column in order from top to bottom so it's important to join them in the right place. It's fine when it's uneven (as above) but when you have a symmetrical piece it's hard to know which way is which.

And this is what Orla has been doing:

The pumpkin bowl is her hat!

WIP Weds: Hexagon Blanket & Granny Square Cushion

Ok, so the Hexagon blanket is a little addictive. Perhaps because it's appealing to the mathematician in me to come up with colour combinations. You see, it's not THAT simple. The pattern calls for 39 hexagons, each consisting of 7 rounds. Now the final round of each is going to be in parchment. That leaves me needing to create 39 hexagons of 6 rounds from 4 colours, so if I exhaust colour combinations there's no way of getting an odd number.

On the other hand the pattern does assume you sew them together as a row of 6 then a row of 5, then 6, then 5, and so on ending on a 6. So I have the option of sewing them all in 6's, which would change the outline of the blanket slightly but in a way that I think would work fine.

The other option would be for me to miss some of the grey combinations as I have two shades of grey in it. I'll carry on with the current combinations and see how I feel when I lay them out to get a better idea of the look.

Since it was pancake day yesterday I just had to take a picture of them like a stack of pancakes! I'm up to 26 but all the ends are still to weave in.

As well as the hexagons i just couldn't resist starting a granny square cushion. This yarn was sent to me in a Christmas Swap on Ravelry and I just couldn't decide what to make with it. It's Rowan Handknit Cotton dk and I'd have probably made lots of little things if I'd bought it myself but as it was a gift I wanted to show it off a bit more. Luckily the colours go really well with the new colour in the living room so a cushion seemed perfect. I'm a little worried I might run out of yarn before it gets big enough to cover the cushion pads I had though so I may have an excuse to buy some more.

WIP: New Blanket

What can I say? I've got the crocheted blanket bug.

There was a lot of yarn leftover from the Granny Ripple as not only did I guess at how many balls I'd need, I also made the total number of balls I ordered the most I could get in the same postage bracket. So, I thought I'd make another blanket from the spare yarn. I didn't want to make another matching ripple though; I like variety. Off I went to trawl patterns on Ravelry and I settled on this one on the Novamade blog. I'd tried playing around with making hexagons earlier today following the normal granny square method but with 6 sections but of course this gave me too many stitches (duh!) and so a wavy mess went in the bin. I really love the way this simple rework of the usual granny square method works out perfectly.

I've done 3 hexagons so far, except the final 7th round as I'm still pondering whether to join as I go or use my preferred slip stitch in the back loops joining method.

I know they don't look it, but they are the same size. It's just my bad photography