Week 42

Oh my! Only 10 weeks to go!

This project originally started as a means to managing the bipolar lows when they hit so that there would be some kind of measurable achievement for the day. I have to admit I am behind on the amount of hexagons I should have. Maybe only by about 5 or 6 (but there have been a few times where it has got as many as 20 behind) but, and this is probably quite an important but, but I have managed to craft in some way, shape or form, even on some of the really low days. And there have been quite a few. A few where the depression has got so bad that I've (on more than one occasion) tried to take my life. I'm not putting this out there as means of encouraging sympathy or whatever, it is what it is. It's part of what makes up this illness. In contrast there have been times where I have been (not full blown) but certainly in stages of mania, which for the most part are very productive times as I barely sleep, though have their equally destructive qualities.

The meds have certainly helped to stabilise I am still rapid cycling it is for the most part to a lesser degree than before. It is becoming more manageable, both for myself as I learn more about what triggers certain things, and also for my family as they learn also about how this illness affects me and effects them.

The hexagon project will be completed and it will be a testament to the trying year it has been on many levels. There have been many other personal struggles unrelated to mental illness that have had to be overcome. It's quite a long list, but I'm not willing to share the nature of most of it out in the ether.

I will endeavor to share a photo of the blanket soon, along with many of the other projects I have undertaken this year.

Thank you for reading this :)

Hexagon a day update. Day 262. Week 38

One of the things I was going to do along side making the hexagon each day was blog on a weekly basis to see the progress coming along. This clearly hasn't happened. The making of the hexagons took a bit of a dive over the summer but everything is back on track now and up to date.

I've had various times where I've hated this project and the results as they were turning out, but I can say quite categorically now I am very much in love with the blanket and how it is turning out. I've periodically posted the pictures on Instagram and the feedback from there has been lovely.

There are only 103 days left of the project, and therefore the year. Each day and week seem to be exponentially speeding up at the moment.



I've been very busy with craft fairs recently and a large commissioned yarn bomb/installation in collaboration with other yarn artists (see previous blog entry). It was hugely successful. These are a couple of pictures from the event...

One a day progress and other yarn related news

I've been terrible about updating my blog with how this project is going. It is still going, but it's turned more into a weekly event due to an extraodinarily busy summer holidays.

I'm currently a week behind having been away at Small World festival in Kent, but I plan to make up those missing hexagons later today.

I'm also currently involved in a yarn bomb/yarn installation project with Metal Peterborough which is very exciting and involving a number of local fibre artists. It's launch is during Peterborough festival which commences very soon.

I'll leave you with images of the work to date on the one a day project. It is now split into 2 halves as it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable to sit under a large blanket while it was very warm. Both side will be joined before the end of the project at the end of the year.

Week 22 hexagon a day project

Eeek! It's been 11 weeks since I posted and update on this project. There are reasons. My own health hasn't been the greatest, and unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) my grandmother passed away 2 weeks ago.

I have been working on a number of personal projects and am currently in the process of writing some fair isle and intarsia workshops; the first swatch of these was knitted up this morning. I am going to also write a colour work class or two for crochet.

Even though life has been challenging recently the hex a day project is still up to date, though the one a day nature of it has been slightly compromised. I plan to get this back in check as the original reasons behind the project are still just as valid, if not more so now.

I shall add some of the other projects I have been working on in another post soon, but for now I shall leave you with where the hex a day is up to.

Thanks for reading x

Week 10/11 hexagon a day challenge and other related yarny things

It's been another crazy couple of weeks. Last Monday saw me celebrate another birthday which still just keeps me from moving up an age bracket on surveys!
My birthday week was full of travel. I visited friends and stayed with the lovely Sam (my cousin) from the KnitRunDig podcast and went to the Knitting and Stitching Show with her on Wednesday and then on to another friend in North London.
The Knitting and Stitching Show was much improved to last year. Maybe having the West entrance of Olympia open helped separated the masses and also went straight into the yarn end of the show halls which were blissfully empty when we arrived. I purchased some needle felting roving and only a few skeins of yarn (most of which was Drops Delight) as I had been gifted a huge stash of yarn from Sam for my birthday. I am now trying to hide most of it from my eldest daughter who has decided that she rather likes making socks on a sock loom!

The spring blanket (which I shouldnt have started due to the enormous amounts of current wip) is growing well now and did travel with me down to London. I'm ahead of where the CAL currently is, but I've set myself my own deadline to have it completed by Easter.

The pattern is here if you're interested.

Even though I was travelling I still managed to keep up to date with my hexagons. I am sort of going through a bit of a wall with the project but even though my enthusiasm is less than it was at the start the reason for why I am doing it is very important and I will continue, even on the days where I feel less than inclined. I didnt get a chance to post a blog as of last week so here are weeks 10 and 11.

 Week 10

Week 11

The other project that has had some progress made in the past couple of weeks is the project that inspired the name of this blog. It has probably got to be the longest wip ever and I hope to goodness that I finish it this year. At last count I had 15 squares left to do, and about 523,972 ends left to sew in (possibly not quite that many, but I hate sewing in ends!)

The hat Boris had been sporting was also delivered to the new recipient who was thrilled. I'm hoping that the late order of a hat will mean that spring will now finally be sprung and we shall have no need for winter woolies for the foreseeable.

Finally, my craft room has had a bit of an overhaul. I bought lots of storage boxes from Ikea last week and set about organising everything into labelled boxes. I had 2 left over what I would call 'student' bookshelves, you know the ones, pine slats with very little in the way of design other than being functional. My fabulous partner has repurposed them into the supports for a sewing table for me and fixed an mdf top to them et voila! I shall aim to post pics when the craft room is fully sorted and looking lovely.

Thanks for reading x

Weeks 7,8 and 9

Oops! A couple of weeks have gone by since I last blogged. Life has been very busy!

I spent a week away staying with my friend and we knitted, crocheted, sewed and drank lots of booze together!! It was such a lovely break. My blanket didn't go with my, but the bag of scraps did. My friend also gave me some yarn scraps which I incorporated a different yarn into each new hexagon.

Since then the weather had taken a brief flirt with spring so I've been at the allotment trying to get some of the weeds under control that have come up during the winter and preparing the soil ready for planting. I've made huge progress and hope to find some time soon to upload photos to my other blog (see above for the tab leading to it).

Having promised myself that this was the year for finishing projects that were ongoing I found myself signing up to a CAL in a facebook group (yes, you can all facepalm!!) Though the project is due to run over 4 months in the group I am hoping that it will be either completed by the end of the month or that I can finish it in time for Easter and have worked it as a Lent project.

I'm not going to post individual pics of the hexagons for this blog as it will take forever and a day to upload them, so here's a look at the past 3 weeks work.

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 6 Hexagon a day project

The end of another week. It's been eventful. I found out this week that I have got more pre-cancerous cells and need to have some more treatment. It's messed with my head a lot. I was hoping the treatment I had last year would have eradicated all of them, but it seems that's not the case. A lot of the weekend I spent in tears. The meds I'm taking for bi-polar have been increased and are making me feel quite strange as they settle in.

On positive notes, we bought a new car this week. None of the kids are small anymore. My step son is taller than me and my eldest daughter is not far behind me in height (I'm 5'7) and the smallest one is catching the others up quickly. Squeezing them into the car of a 206 was getting tough. The new car has A LOT of space for all of them so they are happy. Our bank balance is crying a bit, but it will be worth it to be able to go out in comfort.

I've finished another few squares for the mosaic blanket and that is getting so much closer to being finished.

There was a stash swap at craft group last night and I managed to get rid of loads of things I've had knocking around for ages taking up space that I no longer need or think I'll use, and in the process acquired some new yarns that other people had brought in. Today's hexagon is made just of the yarn I got last night.

This coming week I am hoping that it's less eventful...

 Day 36

 Day 37

 Day 38

 Day 39

 Day 40

 Day 41

 Day 42 - all made from yarn from last night's stash swap

Week 6/52

Week 5 Hexagon a day project and mosaic blanket progress

Not missed a day yet!!

My youngest loves helping me pick out colours for each day and she seems to have a really good eye for putting together colours I wouldnt normally. They mostly seem to work, though I have had to veto a couple of choices.

I have a lot of other projects on the go at the moment. One of my definite 'I'm going to finish this this year' projects has had 4 more squares knitted for it recently. I started it in 2006 and have had problems finding a discontinued yarn. Fortunately Rowan have one very similar to that that I originally used. As it's intarsia work the difference in the yarn shouldn't be too noticeable, and I can mix and match where the squares with the new yarn go so that it's even less obvious.

The other change I may make to the pattern is not to swiss darn over all the squares that the pattern suggests should be. I'm undecided yet, but it's not something that needs a decision just now.

Here's the progress so far.

It's from Blankets and Throws to knit by Debbie Abrahams. The pattern is called Mosaic.

I started it before I really knew much about tension squares and each of my squares appears to be about 3cm larger than it should be!! Far too much completed to worry about that now, but it will hang almost to the floor on each side of the bed when fully completed hehe!!

Hitchhiker progress

I started this scarf a few months ago, primarily as I had a cone of yarn that I wasnt quite sure what to do with. To start with it grew really quickly, but now the rows are taking a REALLY long time (even longer as I had to rip back 8 rows as I'd dropped a couple of stitches and it was proving more difficult to pick them up).

It's a very simple design and I am really pleased with the results and I would recommend as to someone wanting to create an asymmetric scarf where the yarn is what is wanting to be showcased.

Currently I have 31 points and need to get to 42 for completion. Not far to go!!

Retro blanket

I started this project in October 2011 *blush*

I had completed quite a lot of it, but was finding difficult to get motivated to complete it as knitting in the cottons I was using was just proving painful. Never have I had so much crafter's tourettes as I did when it came to making this, primarily due to the yarn not the pattern; but it is finally FINISHED. Hooray!!

My youngest daughter is thrilled as it was made for her and she has been gently nagging me over the past couple of months that she would like it finished.

Part of my mission for 2014 was to complete some of the incomplete projects I have on the go, and this is the first one ticked off the list.

The blanket uses the blocks from the 'Retro' design in Debbie Abrahams 'more blankets and throws' - C&B crafts.

Week 4 hexagon project

It's been a tough week this week. I've been suffering horrible migraines and it has been challenging to do anything. They do however finally seem to be going which I am very thankful for.

This project has not suffered. Even though each hex has taken longer to do on the days I've not been feeling great, they have got done and it has been a real sense of achievement.

I'm surprised how quickly the month has gone. January usually drags for me, but maybe the mildness of the month has helped it to pass more quickly and I'm in no hurry to find myself in the depths of winter.

I've been joining as I'm going for this week, but I'm finding myself being less random with colour choices and so for the next week or so I'm going to join in rounds as I was the first couple of weeks. I've also let my youngest daughter choose the colours for tomorrows hex and that makes things a lot more random as she just picks colours she likes and places no emphasis on whether they 'go' or not!


Here's the week's progress.

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27

Day 28

Weeks 1-4

Week 3 of the hexagon a day project

I am still really pleased with how this project is coming along. I look forward to creating the hexagon first thing every morning. As hoped it is helping to motivate me into a productive day and the timing couldnt be better as I have 10 ongoing commissions, eek!

There was a comment on twitter this morning after I posted the photo of all 3 completed weeks that said ' your hexagon's look like spring flowers very cheerful just what we all need on a grim foggy January morning '

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Week 3/52

Granny blanket is finished

I started working on this in about October. I had some squares left from another project and wanted to learn how to join them in a different way than I'd done before.

It was supposed to turn into a cushion cover, but I got a bit carried away going round and round, and then decided to keep going. After a while I got bored of going round and round, so made enough granny squares to make a large border and then have finished it with a couple of rounds of cream.

I looking forward to snuggling under it watching the telly of an evening and am thrilled how it looks in situ in the living room.

Week 2 of the hexagon a day project

Can't believe we're just about half way through January already!

I'm really enjoying this challenge and it certainly has been excellent at motivating me and so far is being what I wanted this daily project to be.

Some members of the craft group I belong to are also doing the same project and it was lovely seeing what everyone else is up to last night.

So here's week 2 in pictures...

Days 8, 9 and 10

Day 11

Day 12 (these are the colours I'm using in the sampler block blanket)

Day 13

Day 14 (you cant really see on this but it's a white glittery yarn)

Weeks 1 and 2