Hexagon How.doc

7/28/2019 Hexagon How.doc

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Hexagon How-to

My crochet Hexagons, I am LOVING them right now, can't get enough. For abrief spell I fell out of love, I got fed up with the fiddlesomeness of them, thefact that they are very hard to do whilst simultaneously doing anything else

(like drinking cappuccino and nattering). They take concentration folks, but ifyou are prepared to concentrate then these will reward you handsomely.

I'm not sure how this post will turn out, maybe a bit of a descriptivepattern/tutorial mixture, but one thing's for certain :: I will do my damndest tohelp you make these if you are interested. I made my own pattern to suit myown yarn, after not being able to find a pattern anywhere on the web ingeneral. And as my pattern appears to differ slightly from others I've seen, Ifeel confident in finally sharing it :: ie no plagiarism/copyright issues involved Ihope. But I must give absolute credit to Alex ofMoonstitches who taught me(via her fabulous tutorial) the method of joining the hex's together. If you look

on her blog, in the right hand sidebar, you'll see the tutorial waiting for youthere :: it's called Block Meet. You will need to use this when you get to thejoining stage.

Another valuable source of information and inspiration is the Hexagon Lovepool on Flickr. It is quite simply full of fabulous hexagonal goodness.

And there is more info/blurb to be found in my own archives here and here.
http://www.moonstitches.typepad.com/http://flickr.com/groups/464932@N23/http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/hexagonal-goodness.htmlhttp://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/hexagon-love.htmlhttp://attic24.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551101c548834010535d7b128970c-popuphttp://www.moonstitches.typepad.com/http://flickr.com/groups/464932@N23/http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/hexagonal-goodness.htmlhttp://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/hexagon-love.html


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I've had many emails during the past few months asking me for specific yarninfo with regards to my various crochet projects. I do intend to put apermanent page in my sidebar where you can reference this info, but that willhave to wait a little. For now, lets concentrate on these 'ere Hexagons.

For this blanket, I am using Rowan Handknit DK Cotton. It should cost in the

region of 3.50 per 50g ball in the UK. I am using 16 different colours, althoughthe deep yellow I chose for the centres is now discontinued. And as I know youlike specifics, these are the other 15 colours I'm using ::

215 (Rosso)

219 (Gooseberry)

239 (Ice Water)

254 (Bright Orange colour, now discontinued)

287 (Diana)

303 (Sugar)

309 (Celery)

313 (Slick)
http://www.englishyarns.co.uk/acatalog/Products_Rowan_Handknit_DK_Cotton_50g_9.htmlhttp://attic24.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551101c548834010535d7b1d0970c-popuphttp://www.englishyarns.co.uk/acatalog/Products_Rowan_Handknit_DK_Cotton_50g_9.html


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314 (Decadent)

316 (Slippery)

318 (Seafarer)

324 (Bermuda)

327 (Aqua)

332 (Rose)

333 (Antique)

I'm crocheting on a 4mm hook, and the size of the finished hexagon as you cansee above is roughly hand-sized. Each straight side measures 6cm, and about

11cm across between the points.

Now I have never attempted to write out a pattern before. But lets just assumethat if you're reading this in order to try your hand at crocheting hexagons,then you already know how to make basic stitches right? I'll try and not get toocomplicated, but as I do SO want you to be able to do it, I'll try to explainthings as well as basic pattern-write.
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First off chain 4 and join to form a ring. The hole in the centre of the ring willbe smallish, but this is where you need to work from for the first round. Tweakit a bit with your fingers to open it out a little.

Chain 3, then work 11 double crochet stitches (US) or treble crochet stitches

(UK) into the ring. Join with a slip stitch to the 3rd stitch of the initial chain 3and fasten off.

You should now have a little whirly wheel circle with 12 stitches/spokesaltogether.

Join in a new colour for round 2 :: knot the two yarns together, remember likeI showed you for the Granny Squares? Remember you can crochet the ends in asyou go with the hex's too, to save you darning ends in at the end.

Pull the new colour yarn through to the front, through one of the dc/trstitches :: you are working out of the stitches in this round, not the spaces in

between the spokes.

For this round, you're going to be making what I think is known as a BobbleStitch. It's basically where you work two incomplete dc/tr's into the samestitch, joining them at the end by pulling the yarn through all loops.

I shall describe it to you :: yarn over, insert hook through next stitch, yarnover, hook back through stitch (3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/granny-squaring.htmlhttp://www.nexstitch.com/v_bobble_stitch.htmlhttp://www.nexstitch.com/v_bobble_stitch.htmlhttp://attic24.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551101c548834010535d14785970b-popuphttp://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/granny-squaring.htmlhttp://www.nexstitch.com/v_bobble_stitch.htmlhttp://www.nexstitch.com/v_bobble_stitch.html


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Chain 3 (counts as 1 dc/tr), work US dc/UK tr twice into same space, thenchain 1.

Work US dc/UK tr three times into next space, chain 1.

Repeat 10 more times until you get back to the beginning and have 12"clusters" in total. Join round with a slip stitch into the 3rd stitch of the initialchain 3 and fasten off.

Round 4 :: the chain-loop round ::

Join in a new colour and pull loop through a space between the dc/tr clustersof the previous row.
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Chain 3, then make a slip stitch into the next space between your dc/trclusters :: this anchors the chain loop.

Continue making little chain-3's, slip stitching them in place in the gapbetween the dc/tr clusters of the previous round. Join the last chain-3 withslip stitch into the first chain stitch you made. Do not fasten off as you will use

the same colour for round 5.
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Round 5 is the final round that forms the hexagon shape. I'm going to tell youhow to crochet this as a single hexagon before we talk about the joining-as-you-go method.

You are using the same colour as the last round, and you will be working thestitches under the chain-3 loops you created. So to begin, make a slip stitch

under the nearest chain-3 loop.

Chain 3 (counts as one dc/tr), then US dc / UK tr twice. Chain 2 (this is thecorner spacing), then in the SAME chain-3 loop, US dc / UK tr three times. Thisis your first corner, it should look like a double cluster of 6 dc/tr's with a pointycorner bit in the middle.

Into the next chain-3 loop, work US dc / UK tr three times. This is a singlecluster and makes a straight side.

Into the next chain-3 loop, work US dc / UK Tr three times, chain 2, then US dc

/ UK Tr three times. This is your second corner.

Continue working your way round making your clusters of 3 dc's /tr's,alternating between making a double cluster corner group (with chain 2spacing) and a straight side single cluster. You should be ending the round on astraight-side group of three dc's/Tr's. Join the round with a slip stitch andfasten off.
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See?????? It's not so hard?????? You've made your first hexagon!!!

Now if you're happy to make lots of single hexagons and join them all bystitching, then that's absolutely fine. But joining them as you go is fairly easy,although a little fiddly.

You will be working anti-clockwise, starting with a corner, as shown above.
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To begin, you make a single cluster as before (chain 3, then dc/tr twice). Theninstead of chaining 2 to make your corner spacing, chain ONE, then replaceyour second chain space with a slip stitch into the corner space of the ajoininghexagon.Then working into the SAME chain-3 loop, dc/tr three times to finish yourcorner cluster.
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Now you need to slip stitch into the next space of the ajoining hexagon tosecure (see above). Basically, you have to insert hook into the space, hook theyarn from the back and pull it through to the front :: first through the space,then through the loop on the hook. It takes a bit of practice, it can be fiddly.But persevere.
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You continue to work your way round, forming the hex shape in the same wayas described above, but making sure that after each cluster you slip stitch intothe relevant space on the ajoining hexagon which makes the attachment. Whenyou get to a corner where you would normally chain 2, you make 2 slip stitchesinstead (in picture above, one slip stitch is made into the corner of the brightblue hex, and the next slip stitch into the corner of the sage green hex). This is

quite hard to explain in words :: please do look over Alex's tutorial, she hassome great photos to illustrate. But keep in mind that her pattern is differentto mine, she uses more stitches so try not to get confused.

I so hope that if you are inspired to give this a go, then you will be able tofollow my blurb. I've done my very best with this, tried not to be too wordy,and its taken me a very long time to write it all out. But you are worth it,every word! I am happy, SO happy to be spreading the Hexagon Love. And ifjust one of you manages to make a hexagon out of this post, then I am gonnabe MiGhTy HaPpy :)

I'm going to put this post over in my sidebar so you can reference it easily ::look over to the left, down at the bottom, and it will be listed as a Page.

If you find you need further help, please just leave a comment and I will do mybest to reply and help out.

HAPPY HOOKING!
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Hexagon How.doc