Un-puffs

Remember my Jumping on Board post last month? The one about my complete lack of self-control and my succumbing to the most recent knit-bandwagon ? You know, the one about the Beekeeper's Quilt KAL, aka hexi-crack-along! My contribution to this blanket cult is called 720 Degrees of PUFF. Go on, click it, CLICK IT! You know you want to. And feel free to favorite it. I'm an attention hoar.



Well, as you've probably discovered, this pattern has gone viral. Casey even coded in a brand new feature for it on Ravelry: herds. Click the red hashtag #hexipuffalong when you see it on Ravelry, and you'll be served up a plethora of useful links, project photos, + general knitting conviviality related to Tiny Owl Knits' phenomenon du jour.

And I must say, it's wicked fun! Total knitting crack. Remember that mini-skein swap I participated in in the C2S2 group? I put up some pretty-in-pink yarn from Tactile Fiber Arts, and just LOOK at what I got back in return:


Twenty, count 'em, twenty!, wee 5 gram skeins of all kinds of wonderful sock yarn from all over! If you're jonesing to see what each one is, you can check my Ravelry stash listing where you'll find all the details.


I used some of the minis from the swap pictured above, and a few of my newly-dyed COLORBOMB Family Jewels Fingering Minis (recently blogged about HERE and available for purchase in my Etsy shop HERE) to knit up my first five "puffs". Check it:


You might notice that my "puffs" aren't very "puffy". That's because I've decided to knit mine sans stuffing. Yup, I'm knitting un-puffs. Although the pattern is knit as a coverlet, I'm planning to use mine more as a "curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-good-book-wrapped-in-PUFFS" comfort blankie, and I think the puffed hexagons, while adorable, won't suit for that. I want a more flexible fabric than I think would be produced with the as-written polyfil-poofed puffs. Plus, laundering the FO should be easier and FASTER if I eliminate the stuffing.

So I'll leave you with my new hexi-crack counter, currently at 8/720.*




* Why 720 un-puffs? There are 720 degrees in the cumulative total of the angles in a hexagon, and I'm calling my blanket 720 Degrees of PUFF, so I figured I need to make mine with 720 hexagons. Yep, I AM that nerdy, why do you ask?