This week, I have begun work on the first few hexagons for the second blanket! I have actually changed what pattern I am using. It is meant to be a honeycomb-themed hexagon pattern, and luckily the majority of unused yarn I have happened to be yellow.
I have 7 currently made, but I did change the pattern slightly so I do need to redo one of the rows for two of the hexagons. Fortunately, this will not take much time. I want to make roughly 30 or more hexagons total over the next 4 weeks, which will leave me with 2 weeks to join the hexagons together. So far, I am very happy with the progress I have made. Having half of the project done halfway through the allotted time is an encouraging sign. Currently, I am doing my best to research ways to join the hexagons. I have one method which appears to be the best to use. However, this method of joining was intended for use in projects with square tiles. I definitely want to make a final decision on how to do this at least before Week 8 or 9 of the project. It's possible that I could simply sew them together. I see this as an option especially because I want to practice my sewing skills, and it seems less complicated and less tedious than joining the tiles using crochet. I will have to add the white border seen in the right hexagon to all of them, but this will not take much time. It will also not be too much effort to remove it if the need arises. I also wanted to add the patterns I used just in case anyone was interested. The first blanket was heavily inspired by a website called Daisy Farm Crafts; here is the link to the pattern. The hexagonal pattern for this blanket is a slightly modified version of the Honeycomb Hexagon pattern from a blog called Purple Chair Crochet, found here. I changed the pattern by using 2 double crochets in Round 3 instead of 3 double crochets.
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This week I have finished my first blanket. I am very happy with my progress on this blanket, and while it took slightly longer to complete than I thought, I am glad to finally see it done. My final row count added up to 50. This is not as large as I wanted to make it, but this was only due to yarn constraints.
This week I made the finishing touches to the blanket by weaving in the ends left over when I switched my yarn so that they are not visible on the finished piece. I also did final work by smoothing out the blanket and fixing up the ends. I intended to use another ball of yarn this week, but I made an error in counting my remaining yarn and did not have any to use. This was what led to the blanket being smaller than I wanted. I have learned one important lesson, and that is to make sure you are using the correct size crochet hook. This blanket should have been larger, but I accidentally used a smaller sized hook than was intended to be used for the thickness of the yarn. This error caused the blanket's stitches to be denser, making the blanket heavier and using up more yarn. However, this can be beneficial in a way because it is more suitable for use in the winter when it is much colder. I have changed my plans for the next blanket slightly. Instead of ordering new yarn for the project, I will use scrap yarn that I have lying around. This will mean that the blanket is slightly lower quality since the yarn I use will not have been intended to use together. This will mean that I can use up yarn that I have no other use for, however, which is why I believe this is the best option. Below I have enclosed three pictures: two of the finished blanket, and one picture of the blanket lying flat folded vertically in half with a pencil for scale. I apologize for the blurriness on the final picture; my phone's camera has issues with taking pictures of faraway objects. Also, keep in mind this is the blanket folded in half and therefore the picture only half of the actual blanket's size. This week I decided to practice the pattern I will be using for the second blanket. The idea that I am following with this blanket is making many small sections then crocheting them together to create a large piece. I have never done anything like this at all, and I am hoping that I will be able to persevere through joining the sections since it is very time consuming to complete.
I found two patterns which I tested by making a copy of each pattern. Since the yarn I will use will not arrive until the week after next, I just used some spare grey yarn I had, so keep in mind that the final piece will not be the color I used here. I plan to use three shades of pink yarn plus some cream yarn for the border. I am thinking this could be used as a carpet for my room or as a decoration to hang over a piece of furniture. I far prefer the left option since it will be less likely to be too crowded with stitches and the second one was incredibly awkward to crochet since the stitches were so bunched together. I had already decided upon using a hexagonal pattern since I was inspired by a photo I saw of a blanket that used a similar pattern, although it used many more different colors than I am planning to. For the next week, I will finally round up all of the remaining yarn I have left in the correct brand to make the first blanket as large as I possibly can. While I am waiting for my new yarn to arrive, I want to make one more practice hexagon so that I can make sure I am ready to use the actual yarn. This week, my row total has reached 50. Unfortunately, while counting my rows, I realized I forgot to switch stitches a few rows ago when I should be doing so every 10 rows. This creates the checkerboard-like effect that you can see on the photos of the blanket made by alternating front and back post double crochet stitches. Because I forgot to make this step, I will have to undo quite a few of my rows of my rows, so my row total will technically reach 50 instead of 56 for this week.
Given that my total is 60, I have finished 14 rows this week. This is even more than I finished last week, and I am happy with this progress. I may not be able to complete as many rows in the coming week, however. This is because I am planning on working on another crochet project unrelated to my Genius Hour project. The reason I have not posted any new pictures of the blanket is because it is rather difficult to view progress through these pictures. However, I will post another photo either when it is completely finished or next week. The progress should be apparent comparing the beginning of the project to the end. I am very quickly running out of yarn, so I want to spend the next week finishing this blanket, then spend the week after working on techniques and the pattern I want to use for the next blanket. One of my largest concerns is delivery time in case I run out of yarn. I thought I would be able to finish with only buying 10 skeins of yarn, however I am not certain if this will be sufficient or not yet. As I progress through the project, my skills are being tested and improved upon. The basis of crochet is learning the basics and building off of it, and I feel like making such a large project has helped me immensely in continuing to master the basic stitches. |
AuthorEva Miller, a high school sophomore with an interest in crochet and a desire to learn how to persevere through large projects. Archives
May 2021
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