Hexagons In Bloom patterns

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, Part 2, Pattern

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

crochet pattern, free pattern, hexagon, hexagon pattern

Looky what we have here! Colourful hexagons featuring bobly flower centres. It can only be Hexagons In Bloom.

Hexagons In Bloom

Hexagon In Bloom (shells)

As promised last week and on Instagram, this post is my pattern for not one, but two types of hexagons specifically designed for our Crochet For Kidneys Part II blankets. They measure 15 cm from side to side and has the white border that you all voted for.

The plan was to only change the shape of my Granny Square In Bloom to a hexagon, but when I started playing with my Vinni’s Colours Nikkim, the creativity bug just took over. I ended up changing the flower (no raised petals), and as you can see, I also made two versions for the body of the hexagons. I honestly couldn’t stop playing. I blame the yarn. I don’t think it’s hand-dyed with dye, it’s dyed with creative juices.

The colours I used for my hexagons are Blue-Red, Red Violet, Cloud, Fern, Lime, Denim, Plum and Violet. It was so much fun going into my ~~shop~~ garage to choose the colours for my hexies. Like a kid in a sweet shop I tell you! (You can click on any of the shade names to go straight to my Etsy shop where you can buy a ball for £3.50.)

If you need any help with rounds 1 to 4, you can have a look at the photo tutorial for Granny Square In Bloom, as the flower instructions are the same up to round 4 (apart from there only being 6 popcorns in the hexagon, but 8 in the square).

I included a few photos that should help you figure out what to do in Round 4 and Round 5.

Hexagon In Bloom – shells

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Make a magic ring with colour A.

Round 1: Chain 1, 6 sc in ring, slip stitch in chain. 6 sc.

Round 2: Chain 1, 2 sc in each sc, slip stitch in chain. 12 sc.

Round 3: Chain 3 (count as dc.) *Popcorn stitch, 1 dc* Repeat from * to *. Join with slip stitch in chain. Six popcorns made. Fasten off colour B.

Round 4: Join colour B to any Popcorn stitch. Chain 1, 2 sc in same stitch. *Long sc over dc (crochet hook should be inserted in the sc of round 2) , 2 sc in Popcorn* Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to top of starting chain. 18 sc. Fasten off colour B.

Round 5: Join colour C to long sc of round 4. Chain 1, 1 sc in long sc, chain 3, *dc4tog working first 2 legs in first sc and next two legs in next sc, chain 3, sc in long sc, chain 3*. Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to starting chain. Fasten off colour C.

Round 6: Join colour D to sc between flower petals. [Chain 3 (count as dc), dc, chain 2, 2 dc (corner shell made)], *chain 1, sc in cluster of round 5, chain 1, corner shell*. Repeat from * to * end. Join with sl st at top of starting chain. See Good To Know.

Round 7: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1 chain) [2 Dc, 2 chain, 2 dc] in chain 2 space of round 6. Corner shell made. 1 Chain, 3 dc shell in sc, chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 6. Continue working 3 dc shell in each sc and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last sc. 2 dc in last sc. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 8: Chain 3 (count as dc), 2 dc in chain space (3 dc shell made), chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 7. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 9: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1), 3 dc shell in chain 1 space, 1 chain, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 8. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last chain 1 space. 2 Dc in last chain 1 space. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 10 – do not work a hdc in the chain spaces. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

Good To Know: Unlike granny squares, corner shells of granny style hexagons consist of groups of 2 dc, whereas the corner shells of granny squares are groups of 3 dc.

Hexagon In Bloom – solid

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of Vinni’s Colours Nikkim DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Follow this instructions as for Hexagon In Bloom – shell to Round 6.

Round 7: Chain 3 (count as dc); *dc in next dc, [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in 2 chain space, dc in each of the next two dc, dc in 1 chain space, dc in sc. Continue working dc in each dc and in chain spaces of round 6 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1dc] in each 2 chain space. 9 dc on each side of hexagon.

Round 8 and 9: Work dc in each dc of round 7 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in chain spaces of previous round. Round 8 will have 11 dc on each side of hexagon. Round 9 will have 13 dc on each side of hexagon. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 9. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message or comment on the pattern on Ravelry. If you’re on Ravelry please link to the pattern when you’ve used it because I would love to see how your hexagons look. You can also add your hexagons to the Crochet For Kidneys Part II Ravelry group so that we can all gawk and ooh and aaah about your pretty hexagons.

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Please remember to vote for me in the National UK Blog Awards 2014. You can vote here.

Crochet For Kidneys Part II – the hexagons is a go

04 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 2

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

charity, crochet along, crochet4kidneys, hexagon

♫♪Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-a-Dee-Dee-Ay, Oh what a lovely bunch of people you are!♪♪

I received a great response on my post from Sunday launching Crochet For Kidneys Part II! Most of you who attended the event on 9 November have said that you will take part in Part II and I even have a promise of one whole hexagon blanket from Tammy!

You also voted for your favourite colour for the last round of the hexagons. Our (very clear) winner with 55.88% of the votes is: WHITE. I’m really glad most of you went for white. I was secretly hoping for this result. White will form a lovely frame around our brightly coloured hexagons and it’s a universal colour. You guys have good taste!!!

So here is all you need to know to take part in Crochet for Kidneys Part II – the hexagons.

If you’re stuck for crochet hexagon patterns, here are a few helpful links:

Ten free hexagon patterns

Lionbrand’s hexagon market bag

Attic 24’s Hexagon (I used Lucy’s pattern to make a scarf – the close-up of which you see in the photo above)

Step by step photo tutorial for making a hexagon

The deadline is 7 February 2014 because John and I plan to go to the Royal London Hospital on the 28th of February to hand over the blankets. We have two months to crochet the hexagons, will get together on the 7th of February somewhere in the Surrey area (details to follow once I’ve decided on a venue) for a 2 hour joining session, and then we have three weeks to finish as many blankets as we can.

Please join our Ravelry group here, Tweet and Instagram using #crochet4kidneys and most importantly get hexagoning people!! Wouldn’t it be great if we can make more than seven blankets this time? Tell your crocheting buddies and spread the word please. You can even use Pinterest to pin the picture in this post.

I seriously can’t wait for the first hexagons to fall through my front door! If you need my address, please use the Contact Me form.

I will start making hexagons as soon as I’ve finished joining the last two of the purple-and-white square blankets from Part I. I’m going to buckle down and get those to blankets done asap so that it can be delivered to the dialysis unit of the Royal London Hospital before Christmas. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Hexagoning everyone! Brace yourselves – you’re going to see that phrase a lot running up to 7 February!

Crochet for Kidneys Part II

01 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My ramblings, Part 2

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

charity, crochet along, hexagon

That’s right peoples, this blogpost heralds the start of Crochet For Kidneys Part II.

Our purple and white blankets were such a huge success – in terms of the numbers of crocheters who took part and the number of squares I received from you all, but most of all it was a huge success because it lifted the spirits of seven dialysis patients at the Royal London Hospital. Our blankets meant such a lot to them, doing it all again is a no-brainer. We have to keep going. Agreed?

This time however we’re doing it a bit differently. There won’t be a fund raising aspect – this time it’s all about making blankets. I think we should still get together one day to join up the crochet pieces to form the blankets, but there won’t be a crochet quiz or raffles or talks by John and Pieter – just a bunch of charitable hookers making blankets. The date and the venue of our get together is yet to be decided. For now, I just want to ge the (yarn)ball rolling to get us all crocheting.

So what are we making?

Not squares, we’re making hexagons!!! As with the squares, they should measure 15 cm across and be in acrylic or cotton double knit yarn.

What hexagon pattern should you use? Well, I found a list of the top 10 free crochet hexagon patterns over on the Moogly blog. All we need is right there in one place! Just click here to go straight to the list of hexagon patterns. You may just have to add a few rows of (UK) treble / (US) double crochet to some of the patterns in order to reach 15 cm across. On this page there’s a step by step photo tutorial to make a basic hexagon which would be perfect for our blankets. Then there’s this Lionbrand hexagon pattern which is 15 cm across, so it’s perfect. Of course you can use any hexagon pattern – the pattern you choose is totally up to you – as long as your hexagon is 15 cm across.

As for the colour, we’re not sticking to purple and white like we did for the squares – you can make your hexagons any colour, or combination of colours, except for the very last round of your hexagon. If everyone uses the same colour for their last round, we will use that colour to join the hexagons and the overall effect will be uniform and very, very, pretty.

I can’t decide what that last round of colour should be, so I’m putting it to a vote. YOU decide.

Voting will close midnight Tuesday 5 December.

I will recap everything in a follow-up blogpost and also create a new Ravelry group.

If you’re on Twitter or Instagram you can keep on using #crochetforkidneys to share your hexagons with us.

I can’t wait to get started! I can already “see” our brightly coloured hexagon blankets cheering up the dialysis patients!

Kleenex does crochet hexagons

11 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

crochet, hexagon

I know!!!!! Your reaction to this photo, was my reaction in Boots a few minutes ago.

I was in Boots to buy something for John, when I saw a 6-pack of the smaller “Collection” Kleenex pocket packs. Two of the six were wrapped in this crochet hexagon print. I nearly knocked over a woman in my attempt to quickly throw it in my basket (not that any of the Suits in Boots Fleet Street would put up a fight for a crochet covered pack of tissues, but I grabbed and ran anyway).

I’ts only £1.29 for the pack of six. I’ll be using the other four – they have photos of a leaf and russian matryoshka dolls on them (I’m telling you this because I know you will be going to Boots to look for it) – but the two with the crochet hexagons will remain untouched. Obviously.

Terrific Tuesday

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by Natasja in Etsy, My ramblings, Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

blanket, crochet, hexagon, mannequin, Terrific Tuesday

On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

Source: etsy.com via Natasja on Pinterest

I love everything about this image. The granny square fabric covered mannequin (which you can buy here, on CorsetLacedMannequin’s Etsy shop), the sky blue chair, the white wood panelling, the mirror, the Attic24 style hexagon blanket: everything is gorgeous!

Surely this is enough to turn Tuesday into Terrific Tuesday.

Have a good one!

Natasja