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