The journey to a sofa throw...

starts with a single hexagon...

I've started a new long term knitting project.... the VeryBusyMonkey design Hexa-ghan blanket.   A blanket composed of hexagons, all knitted onto their neighbours.  No seams.  It can be done in any yarn weight, but because I had 400 grammes of navy double knitting, two navy double knitting weight projects in the wings that are likely to yield scraps,  and a navy sofa on which to drape the blanket (when its not draped over me that is), mine is going to be double knitting weight. 

I blocked the first hexagon so I could decide how big it was, work out how many were required for a blanket, and draw a nice diagram of my proposed pattern.  Turns out, it takes a very scary number of hexagons to make a blanket.  So I'm just not thinking about how many and just knitting away

Turns out, these things are quite easy, and rather addictive to knit... at least now, in the early stages, when enthusiasm is high, the novelty hasn't worn off and I don't have an entire monster blanket hanging from three small DPN's. 

This rather messy looking pile was the blanket a couple of weeks ago.  Although I checked with the designer and the blanket is supposed to be blocked right at the end, I think I'm going to block at various stages, just so I can see how its coming along.  The navy ones haven't been blocked at all here.   in the bottom photo I've steamed the hexagons to make them lay down a bit.    Although originally planned as a multi coloured scrap blanket, to use up bits I had left over, my natural inclination toward things that match and more ordered patterns seems to be asserting itself and I actually got four balls of different budget yarns at the recent Knitting and Stitching show, all of which look nice together and echo decorative elements from my living room.  I suspect the blanket will most likely evolve to include mainly those colours and the brighter scraps I had originally intended to use may not appear, or may play only a minor role in the overall blanket. Apart from the navy framework, I am letting it evolve as I go along though.