While doing some blog housekeeping, I just came across this old entry that (apparently) I never got around to publishing.  I could’ve sworn I’d clicked “publish”, but nope.  There it was, marked “draft”. Oops!  I’ll just publish it now, even though it’s from ‘way before I started the Procrastination Afghan…

It wasn’t so long ago that the thought of crocheting an afghan would have elicited a “But why would you ever want to do that?” type of response from me.  The investment of time such a project requires was the most obvious deterrent, then there’s the fact that you can buy a finished blanket more cheaply than the amount of yarn it takes to crochet your own.  Where was the appeal?

This, of course, was before I’d been bitten by the crochet bug.  Now it makes perfect sense.  It’s about the process of making the afghan as much as (if not more than) the blanket itself.  You get the fun of choosing the colors and memorizing the pattern– the cozy hours spent crocheting happily away. . . And then at the end, you have something unique that, if not for your skill and effort, would never have existed.  (Well, that’s the theory, anyway.  I’m still waiting to see if mine turns out to look like it took much skill. . .)

After making the difficult admission that one only needs so many scarves (especially when one lives in a generally mild-wintered climate), I’ve been thinking about other projects I could try.  I’d still like to make some wristlets or mitts. . . maybe a lacy shawl. . . possibly a hat or two (. . .and I’m not giving up scarves, altogether– just going on a little scarf diet)– but this spirit of adventure (ha ha) prepared me to accept inspiration when I rediscovered some beautiful photos of hexagon afghans.

Around the Christmas holiday season, I started seriously contemplating the possibility of making an afghan and began scouring the Internet for more photos and patterns.  There’s no telling how much time I’ve spent over the past couple weeks just in ogling hexagon afghans– er, I mean researching.  Yeah, that it’s.  Researching.  ;o)

Here are a few promising hexagon patterns I found online, available for free:

“Grandmother’s Flower Garden Afghan” from Sunshine’s Creations:
This one is a drafted pattern– reverse engineering based on a photo of an afghan.  I haven’t found any photos of afghans made using this pattern, which would of course be nice.  She does link to a similar afghan, but the stitch counts are slightly different.  Still, it wouldn’t be hard to work up one or two hexagons using the pattern to help you decide whether or not it’s the one for you. 

“Super Simple Hexagon” from Leanda at One Loop Short:
Unless I’m mistaken, this hexagon pattern is based on the “similar afghan” linked to in the previous pattern.  (Here, you can find a photo of it in this entry.)  Anyway, Leanda writes that she likes this pattern as an alternative to the hexagons in the next pattern, because she found those were sometimes a little too time-consuming, per hexagon.

Each hexagon has only three rounds (versus the five rounds in the next pattern).  However, I think that it will vary from person to person as to which pattern is truly the most simple.  Unless the rounds are wider on this pattern than in the next, you’ll need to make more individual hexagons (and join them all, too) to reach the same size afghan as you’d get with a lesser number of the wider hexagons.  Comparative simplicity aside, these do have a different look from the other hexagons, and I like them both.

Attic24’s (aka Lucy’s) “Hexagon How-to”:
This, I think, is the pattern that initially caught my eye, and in the end, it’s the one I settled on making (this time).  I’m not sure how much of my decision was based on the pattern itself or the glorious riot of color in Lucy’s hexagon afghan.  The photos of her afghan are so appealing!  Even though I’m not using the same yarn (or, thus, colors) as she used, I thought her photos were proof that this pattern (with its five rounds per hexagon) lends itself well to a good mix of colors.

No matter what hexagon pattern you choose, there’s always the issue of how to join them.  You can make all the hexagons separately, then stitch them together at the end, or you can use a method of “joining as you go”.  Alex (aka Moonstitches) shares her method of join-as-you-go, which she calls “Block Meet”.  This is the method I’m using, as it seemed more appealing than stitching together who-knows-how-many hexagons all at the end. 

I Love This Yarn! from Hobby Lobby
*Hot Rose
*Orange
*Turquoise
*Limelight

Impeccable from Loops & Threads
*Soft Rose
*Rouge
*Lavender
*Claret
*Butterscotch

Simply Soft, from Caron
*Iris
*Berry Blue
*Violet
*Blue Mint

Simply Soft Eco, from Caron
*Sprig
*Ocean Mist

Vanna’s Choice, from Lion Brand

*Lemon Yellow

This is a trick my mother told me (that one of her aunts told her). They both use it for quilting, but I don’t see why it can’t work for anything that requires the selection and combination of color.

The idea is that to get an impression of what a bunch of colors of fabric (or in this case, yarn) look like together– without being distracted by any one pattern or color– you should lay them all out together (or stack them up, maybe, in the case of skeins of yarn), stand back, and look at them through squinted eyes.

I thought that a purposely blurred photo would be one step better, so I took out the camera, set it to manual focus, made everything nice and blurry, and snapped away.  (If your camera won’t let you focus manually, you can blur a photo afterward, using Photoshop or a similar photo-editing program.  You might also be able to trick the camera by putting something small and neutral a few feet in front of the yarn and focusing on that.  The background should blur somewhat.)

Looking at the colors this way does give a different impression. You’ll likely notice that certain colors stand out more than you realized they would, while others seem to recede. When I took my blurry photos, I was happy to discover that some of the colors I was initially hesitant about seemed more harmonious when mishmashed with all the other colors.

When you settle down to crochet, you find that you still have one more decision to make– what size hook will you use?  When you’re using a variety of yarns, you may find (as I did) that the wrappers recommend slightly different hook sizes.  I worked my first hexagon in a few different hook sizes before settling on a J hook.  I’m still not sure if it’s the perfect size, but it’ll have to do, because I’m not starting over again.  (g)

So far, I’ve worked five hexagons, and I’m still a little uncertain if I’m doing everything correctly (according to the pattern).  The pattern itself is simple enough.  There are no intimidating stitches.  For me, the struggle has been learning to tidily change colors (using knots) and trying to crochet over (most of) the tails so that there’s not so much weaving in of loose ends.  This is my first time changing colors in a project.  Obviously that’s a big part of this afghan– and one of the most exciting aspects of it– but it’s still taking a little getting used to.

Also, I’ve had to admit that I’m not sure if you’re supposed to “turn” the work at all. . . I’m going to just try to be fairly consistent in what I do.  Even if you do every hexagon “wrong”, it probably won’t be as noticeable if they’re all that way.  (Well, that’s what I keep telling myself.)

It’s been something of an adventure already, this afghan, and I’ve barely gotten started!  (g)

I’ll try to keep this blog updated on my progress, every so often.  In the meantime, here’s the hexagon afghan’s Ravelry page.

And this one is good for those times when you need to weave in an end that you accidentally left too short:

Why did it never occur to me to position the needle into the crochet before threading it?! It makes perfect sense.

Hi, it’s Present-Day Me again. I have picked up the hexagon project again.  I decided to start it over from scratch, because with a little more experience under my belt, I saw that I shouldn’t have turned the motifs as I worked them.  I only had five done, anyway, so it wasn’t a huge loss of time and effort.  I’m enjoying the project much more now and should have some photos of my progress soon!