Judy's Magic Cast On

Judy's Magic Cast On is truly a magical technique.  It is an easy way to start a project when you want one end to be grafted together, it looks kind of the reverse of the Kitchener stitch at the end of a project.  It has been a while since I finished any hexipuffs, but I took this video AGES ago and finally got the chance to edit it and upload it to YouTube.  Enjoy!

More Hexipuffs!

It has been a while since I've made some hexipuffs, and I've received some generous and very purple RAK's.  I have not had the chance to knit with many of these yarns yet, but I hope to very soon.

I made a hexipuff from the yarn that I used in the first sweater I ever made (In high school - see middle puff below.)  The puff is a tad bit bigger than some of the others, but I think that this will be okay in the end.  I'm not too worried about it in any case.

I did not finish quite as many hexipuffs as I had hoped for this update.

SO I did a "measurement" and found that ~30 hexipuffs (5x6) makes 1 square foot of quilt.  A full mattress (double) is 54" x 75", or ~ 4.5' x 6.25'.  28.125 square feet, which means that I would need around 900+ hexipuffs.  At the rate I'm going, this should take me around 25 years.  Do you think I'll ever make it there?  (I only have 36 completed right now.)  

BeeKeeper's Update

It has been a while since I've knit a hexipuff. Unfortunately, I could not remember if I knit a full round after the cast on edge or if I went straight into the increases. The answer is YES - knit a full round before starting the increases. This is part of the directions, not because I'm doing a different cast on method.  (For future reference to myself I am also doing my increases as KFB.)

Doubling up. I had made it up to this point without using any yarns twice (with one exception). I am not just trying to use some of these yarns up so I can dye new mini-skins but also so I can see how the quilt will start to fit together.

I also decided that it was time for me to make some half and half hexipuffs.  I had remnants from my remnants, too small for a full hexipuff but perfect to make a bisected one!  I will do stripes and other designs as I move forward.  

I have received some different yarns from the RAK (random act of kindness) Ravelry group.  I started knitting with some RAK yarns.  I am very excited to incorporate more different brands of yarn into my quilt!

I need more purples!  I have a LOT of greens, but I need some more purples and colors in that range.  As of the writing of this post, 33 hexipuffs have been completed.  I have a long way to go, and many more yarns to find.  Of course, I'm not allowed to buy any more yarn for a while.... BUT I did find some old remnants that may work into some awesome hexipuffs.  I love what a memory collection this quilt is coming!  

Hexipuff Update

The hexipuffs continue! I seem to use between 12-14 yards per hexipuff (with fingering weight.) At this point I have mostly unique hexagons, I have not yet started creating duplicates (with one exception - I made two out of a self striping sock yarn.)

First symmetric unit

All about lace. I was looking at my leftover lace, wondering what I could do with it. Of course there are doilys and even a remnant lace scarf (I'm thinking of using mostly scraps for an advent scarf.) But then I realized that lace held double is bascially fingering weight. Horray for some lace hexipuffs!

I wanted to join the Mini Skein Mania, so I purchased some hand dyed miniskeins from Mermaid Knitting. My set had 9 colors in it, 6 of the 9 skeins pictured below (but 9 hexipuffs.) There is enough yarn that I should be able to make two hexipuffs from each miniskein, I expect to get 18 hexipuffs total out of this lot

At this rate it is going to take me years to finish this quilt, but didn't I expect that from the beginning? If you want the most up to date information on this project, check out my BeeKeeper's Quilt Ravelry page. I am trying to keep track of the yarns used and yardage consumed. Happy Knitting!

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P.S. Don't forget about the Knitting Project of the Day Submission contest running through April 17. Enter for your chance to win a free copy of the Anemone Coat Check Scarf pattern pdf.

My First Hexipuff

Well my friends, I have catapulted onto the bandwagon. I received the Beekeeper's Quilt knitting pattern through a generous random act of kindness (RAK.) If you are not familiar with this project, the concept is making tiny stuffed hexagons (hexipuffs) out of scraps of fingering weight yarn. Once you have hundreds of hexipuffs, you sew them together into a quilt. This is a project that I know will take me years, so I am adding a tag so you can follow my progress.

For my first hexipuff, I selected my first handpainted wool skein. Since I love this colorway so much, isn't it fitting for it to take a star role in my quilt? This hexipuff is an exception to my plan because I have a lot of this yarn left. I will try to only make hexipuffs out of remnants (and purchased/donated miniskeins.)

How much do you stuff your hexipuffs? I read that one knitter overstuffed hers so they would hold up for a long time, while other users don't stuff them at all. I decided to go the middle ground and stuff them a little. Sure, they will flatten out over time, but this will provide some added warmth. The amount of stuffing was too small to register on my cooking scale (<1g)

I imagine that this project will cause me to run out of fiberfill. I have been working on this same bag for a few years now!

I cast on using Judy's Magic Cast on and then grafted the top edge together (after stuffing) using the kitchener stitch. This hexipuff used 3 g of wool (+/- 0.5 g). This is ~14 yards.

I knit with size 3 knitting needles LOOSELY. Some of the yarns I will use may be thicker than fingering weight, so I wanted to make sure I can keep everything the same approximate size. Thankfully, I am close to the pattern with 3" from tip to tip. (If my hexipuffs started out too small, then it would take a LOT longer to make a big quilt!)

I have not yet decided how big of a quilt I want. I know that I want the project to be at LEAST the large size, so I will need AT LEAST 384 puffs. I am going to stick to cool colors (blues, greens and purples) but I don't mind hints of warmer color in variegate yarns.

NOTE: I finished more than one hexipuff in my first day, but I wanted the first puff to get a lot of notice!