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figarofigaro1So there's this pattern, The Beekeeper's Quilt. It's a bit of certifiable knitting insanity. Go check out the link. Go ahead, I'll wait. If you have long enough, watch the video. She seems delightfully batty, no?
For those of you who don't want to click on the link, I'll explain: The pattern uses sock yarn to knit tiny hexagons (around 2.75 inches across, give or take), that are then stuffed to become "hexipuffs" which are ultimately joined together to make a puffy warm quilt.
I heard of the mania surrounding this wildly popular pattern and thought, "That would be a good way to use up my sock yarn scraps to make a crazy quilt." But then right after that I thought, "I don't want to have to knit a million little puffs to make a quilt. How long would that take?" So I wisely resisted the urge to buy the pattern and embark on this Fool's Journey.
Then one of my online knitting "friends" bought me the pattern as a gift. And I thought, "Well, I can knit a puff and see how it looks." So I picked my all-time favorite sock yarn scrap ball and knit one on October 12, 2011.
It's Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel. I made socks form it in 2008. The little puff delighted me and, alas, I was hooked. I made a few more.
Each one takes me about 30 minutes (45 if I'm alternating colors). They eventually get joined up simply by tying them together at the corners.
Then somebody linked to an online calculator that would tell you how many hexagons of x diameter one would need for a twin, full, queen, or king blanket.
We have a queen-size bed, so I dutifully input my data and pressed the button. 839. I said, "Oops, that can't be right. Let me punch my numbers in again. 839. I closed the whole browser window and re-opened it. Maybe there was a glitch. I entered everything again. 839.
"Holy crap! I need 839 puffs!"
Well, of course I've done the math for how long it will take in hours. I even figured out that after it's done it will weigh over 5 pounds. And I've made peace with the fact that it will probably be 5 years in the making. The picture below is still just using scraps from socks I have made.
Since then, I've made a few puffs a week. Sometimes I have made 2 or 3 in a day. Sometimes I make 2 or 3 a week. I've done some swaps to get more varied colors. I've bought some mini-skeins to help with get even more colors. The picture below is 86 puffs. It's roughly the width of my kitchen counter and about a foot long.
Last night, I made it to 100 puffs. And I said, "To celebrate 100 puffs, I am going to put them in our hollow glass lamp."
Only 739 more to go.
For those of you who don't want to click on the link, I'll explain: The pattern uses sock yarn to knit tiny hexagons (around 2.75 inches across, give or take), that are then stuffed to become "hexipuffs" which are ultimately joined together to make a puffy warm quilt.
I heard of the mania surrounding this wildly popular pattern and thought, "That would be a good way to use up my sock yarn scraps to make a crazy quilt." But then right after that I thought, "I don't want to have to knit a million little puffs to make a quilt. How long would that take?" So I wisely resisted the urge to buy the pattern and embark on this Fool's Journey.
Then one of my online knitting "friends" bought me the pattern as a gift. And I thought, "Well, I can knit a puff and see how it looks." So I picked my all-time favorite sock yarn scrap ball and knit one on October 12, 2011.
It's Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel. I made socks form it in 2008. The little puff delighted me and, alas, I was hooked. I made a few more.
Each one takes me about 30 minutes (45 if I'm alternating colors). They eventually get joined up simply by tying them together at the corners.
Then somebody linked to an online calculator that would tell you how many hexagons of x diameter one would need for a twin, full, queen, or king blanket.
We have a queen-size bed, so I dutifully input my data and pressed the button. 839. I said, "Oops, that can't be right. Let me punch my numbers in again. 839. I closed the whole browser window and re-opened it. Maybe there was a glitch. I entered everything again. 839.
"Holy crap! I need 839 puffs!"
Well, of course I've done the math for how long it will take in hours. I even figured out that after it's done it will weigh over 5 pounds. And I've made peace with the fact that it will probably be 5 years in the making. The picture below is still just using scraps from socks I have made.
Since then, I've made a few puffs a week. Sometimes I have made 2 or 3 in a day. Sometimes I make 2 or 3 a week. I've done some swaps to get more varied colors. I've bought some mini-skeins to help with get even more colors. The picture below is 86 puffs. It's roughly the width of my kitchen counter and about a foot long.
Last night, I made it to 100 puffs. And I said, "To celebrate 100 puffs, I am going to put them in our hollow glass lamp."
Only 739 more to go.
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Date: 2012-03-14 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-14 10:55 pm (UTC)If your attitudes toward finishing are anything like mine, I recommend that you join together what you have now (you can maybe even still put them in the lamp after) and then join on new puffs once a month or so. Because I could see successfully making 800+ puffs and then being so intimidated by the work involved in joining them all that I never completed the project.
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Date: 2012-03-15 02:02 pm (UTC)My main concern is that my colors might be markedly different when I get into later puffs and I want the whole thing to be a big crazy mishmash without an obvious break in color usage.
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Date: 2012-03-15 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 02:35 pm (UTC)