I love trying out new patterns, so I am always excited when a customer requests something I haven't done before. The request to make a honeycomb blanket came right at the perfect time -- sandwiched between chevron crochet blanket orders and hats. BORING! I kid, I kid...the blankets and hats are fun, but when you do them repeatedly you ache to make something new that gets the creative juices flowing....this blanket was the perfect solution for that!
The pattern I used was the "Sweet as Honeybaby Blanket set with Bee Applique" by Sara Leighton on Ravelry.
The pattern was fairly simple to follow, and the hexagons were very easy to make -- BUT, they were a bit on the smaller size, which made piecing the blanket together at the end very laborious.
To make a crib sized blanket (~24 x 29") I had to make 46 hexagons. That's a lot of hexagons (and a lot of yarn to finish off....my least favorite thing to do)!
Also, if you prefer to NOT have the edges of the honeycomb to be raised, you could probably consider finishing each hexagon off with a cream edge -- then just slip stitching it all together at the end would still give you that border effect. Live and learn, right?? It would definitely add some extra work (and yarn) to the pattern. I'm torn on this -- I think the raised option was super cute finished (I wasn't a fan of it at first from the photo). The back side of the blanket is NOT raised, so that added texture is only on the front.
I mistakenly thought that I could stitch the hexagons together without adding the cream border first and not have that raised effect -- but I couldn't figure out how to do it so it looked right...
This is how the hexagons will look stitched together as the pattern is written. I went down a few hook sizes so that the yarn wouldn't stick out as far and would be more compact.
This is how it would look if they were just stitched together. I still used the cream yarn, in hopes that it would show more and create more of a border -- but it just looked weird.
Side by side, you can really see the difference in how much having that cream border adds to the overall look of the blanket.
And, while it is raised on the front, this is the view on the backside -- no raised bump at all.
As I mentioned above, stitching together all the hexagons was certainly a labor of love. I've done granny square style blankets before, but the 'squares' have usually been a bit bigger, so not as much to stitch together. And, usually they are SQUARE....so none of this zig-zag business I had to deal with because for this blanket they were hexagons. Still, it is always gratifying to see the blanket come together from small pieces into one big masterpiece....
So, for four hours one night I sat at my kitchen table with a glass of wine and watched this creation take shape...
After the blanket was seamed together, I set off making the bee appliques. I always forget how fun it is to make little creatures out of yarn. And when they start taking shape and are recognizable by my 5 and 7 year old, even better! BUT, I also always forget how many ends there are to finish off, and how laborious it is to stitch things onto the blanket. This blanket was definitely worth my weight in time!
For my version of this blanket, I used Red Heart with Love in Eggshell and Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Maize. The bumblebees were a combination of Red Heart with Love in Black and then scrap yarn I had in white and yellow. The author of the pattern recommended using a slightly different shade of yellow for the bees so that they don't blend in to the blanket, and I second this recommendation. I made a few 'test bees' of different yarns and the ones that were different definitely looked better than ones made with the same shade of yellow.
Overall, while this was a very laborious blanket to make, I think it is definitely worth it in the end -- It is SO cute!
