Yup, Me Too

I've got to admit that I've got the hexipuff fever.  A friend happened across the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern on Ravelry and showed it to me at the beginning of knitting group a couple weeks ago.  I thought it was a great pattern to use up old sock yarn scraps since the idea of doing the mitered square blankets gives me agita*- so many ends to weave in!

It wasn't until a week or so later that I realized how popular this pattern was, and the Cabbage Patch/Tickle Me Elmo frenzy that went along with it.  Some of these people are a little bit nuts.  So is the designer though.

the beekeeper's quilt from tinyowlknits on Vimeo.

Whoa.

I've started two blankets.  Yes I said two.  One is for all my leftover sock yarns.  The other is sock yarn that once was for a pair of now tri-color frogged argyle socks.  Because it was intarsia, this left me with a lot of small balls of yarn.  I was going to make some random striping socks with them, but that again meant more weaving in ends and agita.  This project was the perfect solution.

As the designer says, they're very easy to keep in my purse and work on as I'm on the go.  I think it's hilarious though that they're all coming out different sizes.

I did alter the pattern.  Of course I did, this is me afterall.  I hated the way the increases and decreases looked on my first, as written hexipuff.  Same goes for the bind off edge.  I changed the pattern so that my increases are done as make-1's (which is why my puffs are coming out misshapen but I'm ok with that) and I moved my increases and decreases over by one stitch so that it's worked after the first stitch and before the last stitch on each needle.  If this doesn't make sense to you, you probably haven't read the actual pattern yet.  I also thought the three needle bind off looked super sloppy so I'm just doing Kitchener stitch.

Comparing Bind Offs - White is from the pattern as written and Purple is my changes

Comparing Increases

Comparing Decreases

These puffs are like doing a double toe- the start of a toe-up sock is the beginning of the puff and the end of the puff is like finishing off the toe of a cuff-down sock.  And seeing as how I avoid cuff-down socks as much as possible, this gives me the opportunity to memorize Kitchener stitch.

Another change- I'm using a US size 1 needle for the pattern.  I know I'm a loose knitter, but really...how did she get those done on a US size 4 and not have holes of stuffing showing through?  I tried a US 3 (because I always have to go down at least 1 size) and man was that a disaster.

Also, I'm being a super recylcer here.  I save all of my yarn scraps.  I have a glass vase that I throw them in which is also the decorative home for all of my old straight needles.  Lately, it's been overflowing.  So I took out a bunch of the scraps and put them in a ziploc that stays in my hexipuffs project bag.  When I finish a puff, I stuff it with the yarn scraps.  The only exception is the white puffs do get stuffed with the fiberfill because the yarn scraps show through too much.


*Yes, I had to look up how to spell this word. 


PS Don't forget about the 100th post giveaway!