Accidental Hexagon Blanket

Way back in July 2017 I was ordering some yarn online to make amigurumis, buying a selection of colours from the yarns I favour, Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK and Robin DK. I was looking for any other brands that might work well to crochet toys, and so I also ordered some Scheepjes Colour Crafter to try it out.

When it arrived, it looked very nice, but unfortunately it was much thinner than the brands I normally use. This difference in thickness may not show up when you're making a garment or a blanket, but when you work in the round it's obvious, as you can see in this photo - the shape on the left is made with Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK, the one on the right is Scheepjes Colour Crafter.

So, I had eleven balls of yarn that I couldn't use to make amigurumi. Luckily, all the colours I had chosen were various shades of green and brown with an autumnal look, so I decided to use them to make a blanket. Given that it was summer when I started doing this, I thought it would be best to make motifs that I could sew together at the end (preferably in the winter) so I wouldn't get too hot working under an ever-growing blanket. It would also give me a project to work on in-between patterns that I was designing - I get quite agitated if I don't have some crochet to work on in an evening watching the TV!

I chose to make hexagons, using a slightly tweaked version of  Attic24's pattern (I made larger bobble stitches in the second round). Having eleven colours wasn't going to work out very well, so I found a ball of green yarn that I'd bought sometime in the past and added that to the selection. I divided the colours into three sets of four to make the hexagons, then after I'd made a few I'd swap the colours round and make a few more, to be sure I used up all the yarn equally.

I worked on these on and off until last spring, when I used up most of the yarn, having made 261 motifs. I blocked them in batches then put them all away over the summer. I've been busy all autumn working on a new book (details to come soon!), but when I finished with that just after Christmas, I realised it was a great time to put all those hexagons together.

Weirdly, I really like sewing things together. I know most people hate it, but I find it rather relaxing. (I worked over all the ends of the different rounds as I was making them, but I wish I'd sewn them in now, as they keep poking out. Oh well, I only made this for myself, so it doesn't matter too much.) I decided to sew the blanket with fifteen hexagons wide, seventeen hexagons long, meaning I had a few motifs left over. It took quite a while deciding the order I was going to sew them, trying to mix up the colours in a random-looking way, but I eventually came up with a system that worked.

Of course, once I'd finished, I realised that I hadn't given any thought to a border! I hunted through my stash and found a couple of green yarns that matched with the other colours I'd used, and did a couple of rounds of dc (UK tr) and one round of sc (UK dc) around the edges, and that seemed to work fairly well.

Rather nicely, this blanket that I ended up making by accident matches well with the decor in my sitting room, so I'm very happy with the end result!

Solid Square Blanket

I've been very busy working on my next Star Wars pattern book, so I haven't got many new projects to share. However, before I got started on the book I made a crochet blanket just for myself. Having finally got myself on Pinterest I'd discovered and pinned all sorts of lovely patterns, and I decided to make something fairly simple but colourful. I got inspiration from The Patchwork Heart and used the colour pack for this blanket to work out how much yarn I'd need.

I wanted this blanket to go in my bedroom, so I chose the colours to match a wallhanging that we have above the bed. I must admit, I decided on a range of blues and reds, but when some of them weren't in stock, I chose some alternatives that I slightly regretted (the purple in particular), but I was impatient to get on with it!

The basic pattern for the squares is very simple, I tweaked the pattern a little after looking in an old motif book that I have, but it's a very common square that you'll come across everywhere. I worked all the first rounds, then all the second rounds, and so on, and in fact, it felt like it worked up quite quickly, though I didn't work out exactly how long I spent on it. It was nice to work in separate motifs as I started on it when the weather was still quite warm, and I didn't fancy sitting under an increasingly large blanket!

The amount of yarn I'd bought (ten 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK in different colours - Lipstick, Burgundy, Gold, Claret, Midnight, Sherbet, Teal, Denim, Storm Blue, Plum - and four balls in Stone for the outside of each square and joining) was supposed to be enought for a blanket 8 by 8 squares, but I found I only used about half of the colours before the last round once I'd made 64 squares. I wasn't sure how much of the joining yarn I was going to use, so I ended up making 90 squares, and the four balls of the Stone were just enough to make the final rounds and join all the squares for a blanket that size.

I joined the squares using sc(US)/dc(UK) through the edge of two squares at a time, it's a quick way to join and is very neat, smooth on the front and giving a ridge on the back of the blanket, which you can see in the photo below. I do like the way that the holes on each corner of each round make a pattern when the squares are all joined together.

I'm very happy with my blanket, which is just for me, even though the colours don't work as well as I'd wanted. I use it on my bed as an extra layer if it's very cold (my husband doesn't really feel the cold, so it only needs to be large enough to go on my side of the bed). It's also good for napping under when it's not so cold, and as I fold it up when I'm not using it, it hasn't got covered in cat or dog hairs!