Friday the 7th of February had finally arrived. It was the day of our hexagon hookup at the Court Farm Garden Centre cafe. I arrived just before 10 am to find our long table in front of the cozy fireplace. Isn’t this just the best place ever to get together with friends, old and new, for a spot of crochet?

Jude, Liz, Mary, Gill and Jenny arrived soon after me laden with bags of hexagons and even two completed blankets.  Luckily the cafe wasn’t very full at this point because we did sort of take over a bit. Squeels of “Oooh Mary that’s gorgeous!” and “Bright solid colours! Just what I needed!” could be heard over in the conifer section.

The ladies really blew me away with their generosity. Like I said in yesterday’s post, I received enough hexagons for one blanket, as well as two completed blankets yesterday. Within two minutes, the blanket count rose with three. Totally unexpected and so welcome.

We didn’t waste much time in getting our drinks and eats. Everyone knows you crochet much better when you have coffee and a scone.

We decided that the six of us would spend our two hours joining the straight sides of  six hexagons, to make the rows that I would eventually join up. I made little packets of rows for each of the two blankets I took with me. If they helped me make up the ten rows of six, all I have to do is join the 10 rows together in zig zags and do the borders for all the blankets. Easy peasy.

Here’s Mary sewing up a straight side.

Jude and Liz doing their straight sides. I had such a great time with these ladies. I think it was at this point I did a little hoppity-dancemove as I returned to the table. I was in my element. I mean really: day off work, morning in a cafe, crochet, friends, coffee, scones, hexagons for charity, chit-chat about all things crochet and yarn related. How could I not be happy?

So much concentration! Gill is sewing up the hexagons that she made. It looks like she will have made enough for one complete blanket!

Jenny’s little helper Nat was very well behaved and friendly. He’s the cutest little guy.

Can you see how pretty Gill’s hexagons are? I can’t wait to see the completed blanket. Jenny kept her head down the whole time, working away non-stop.

Here is Mary’s blanket. 

Mary is very proud of her blanket. And so she should be! I can’t explain to you how well made this is. The sides are super straight, the corners extra pointy, the tension amazingly consistent throughout and the  5cm wide (US) sc / (UK) dc border done in exactly the right combination of colours.

I will take more photos of Mary’s blanket, as well as Liz’s purple and white hexagon blanket that I told you about yesterday, for a later post. You will definitely see more of this blanket!

Next time I’m doing a blanket I’m going to make a Mary Border. It’s so simple but so effective. The odds that your blanket will be made up of (US) sc / (UK) dc stitches are very slim, so using that stitch for the border is the perfect contrast and it forms a lovely stiff edge which keeps everything nicely together.  A Mary Border. That’s a thing right? It wasn’t, but now it is.

At the end of the two hours the six of us had joined all the straight sides of both blankets. Two hours extremely well spent and a great help to me.

To Liz, Mary, Jenny, Gill and Jude I want to say a huge thank you for taking the time to help join the hexagons. I had an amazing time and you’ve been a great help to me. If I could, I would do it all again next week. Hey, I’d do it again tomorrow if if I could!