December 26, 2024

One of my 2025 goals will be to use up scraps. In the past, I’ve made scrap blankets by holding yarn double and just using a simple stitch, but those blankets aren’t really fun to make for me, they’re just practical. My 2025 theme is gong to be to just have fun, so I decided I wanted to find a scrappy project that will both be practical and interesting.

I have a lot of DK acrylic left-overs from past blanket projects and I have a large amount of black yarn that was sent to me by mistake from Knit Picks. Since they told me to keep the yarn, I might as well use it as the background color for a scrappy project since, ironically, it is a recycled yarn made from waste fibers.

I found the Brioche Crochet Hexagon Daisy by Vita Mašalienė on YouTube and tracked it down on Ravelry as well. When I went to purchase it, I noticed she also has a second Hexagon Summer Brioche Crochet that is even prettier, so I purchased that one as well. I made a test of the Daisy hexigon and I like it, but while searching to see if Vita also had a YouTube tutorial for the Summer hexagon, I came across the Blooming Star Blanket tutorial by BebaBlanket that I think is stunning. The pattern is now in my library.

Maybe I will make a bag with the other hexagons? I’ve added that to my queue.

But for the scrap project, I’m going with the BebaBlanket Blooming Star. The BiS in the pattern name refers to Beauty in Simplicity, a line within the designer’s patterns.

January 4, 2025

I’ve now finished 3 hexagons and they take 12 g of the contrast color. They are 6” across. I do wish I had taken Daiga’s advice and gone up to a 4.5 mm hook as they are slightly stiff, but not enough to start over. Steam blocking will have to do its magic.

I sorted through my scrap basket and all my partial balls of Stylecraft Special DK and Knit Picks Brava Sport (which is close enough to DK) that were scattered around. (While I did that, I made my Ravelry Stash accurate for my Special DK, which I’m definitely making good progress on using up.) I got out my kitchen scale and separated out the colors that I had less than 12 g of and I’ll have to find another use for them.

If I wanted my usual 40” x 60” throw size blanket, that would be about 80 or 90 full hexis, plus some half hexis if I want the edges to be straight. Eep! That would be a year-long project since each hexi takes me several hours.

January 19, 2025

I’m waffling on this project again. Now I’m thinking I may make a bag inspired by the Summer Retro Tote Bag which takes 18 hexagons. The smaller hook makes these Blooming Star hexagons perfect for a bag and less so for a blanket. I may go back to my original plan of using Vita Mašalienė’s brioche hexagons to make a scrap blanket. I found a third one as well.

Either way, I need hexagons, so I’m just going to keep on making them.

March 16, 2025

I took this to San Antonio with me and I’m done with 16 of the 18 hexagons. I’ll finish the final 2 on the airplane tomorrow.

April 12, 2025

Today I finished joining the 18 hexagons into 3 rows of 6 using a flat surface slip stitch join in black. Next I’ll need to fold and do the last seam to make it into a tube.

I’m following the layout from the Summer Retro Tote Bag pattern but the hexagons are bigger, so stitch count is totally different.

April 20, 2025

I folded the bag and did the final seam, so now it is a tube. I looked at how Jennifer Renaud filled in the triangles in her bag pattern and I’ll follow the concept but have to do different stitches since my hexagons have a much bigger stitch count and lighter weight yarn.

I played around with filling in one of the top triangles (or bottom, depending literally on how you look at it). This is what I came up with:

Round 1
10 sc
4 hdc
2 hdc2tog
1 dc2tog 0ver the join
2 hdc2tog
4 hdc
10 sc
(34 sts) repeat 5 more times

Continue working in a spiral.

Round 2
8 sc
6 hdc
3 dc2tog
6 hdc
8 sc
(31 sts)

Round 3
4 sc
6 hdc
2 dc2tog
3 dc
2 dc2tog
6 hdc
4sc
(27 sts)

Round 4
2 sc
8 hdc
7 dc
8 hdc
2 sc
(27 sts)

Round 5
12 sc
3 hdc
12 sc
(27 sts)

Round 6
sc in every st

April 27, 2025

Complete! When I had finished squaring off the top and bottom this morning, I realized it is too big for a tote bag. Plus I prefer cotton for my bags to help them wear well and not stretch. So I measured it and it was 18” square, which is a good pillow size. I found a 20” fabric pillow that we’ve had forever and is still sturdy but showing its age and used it as a pillow form, slip stitching the top and bottom around the pillow. Et voilà!