The Legend of Karen's Quilt

It all started quite innocently. I wanted to knit my best friend a pair of socks. Being she's allergic to wool, I wanted to find some cool cotton that she could wear and something that was funky....so I went to Fiberfest 2012 in Dallas. I found some of the coolest denim yarn. I was so excited! I also found the pattern I had been obsessing over - the hexipuff quilt pattern! Everyone was blogging and talking about these!  Everyone was making one! So I thought what a great idea to get rid of some of my miscellaneous yarns!

Fiberfest 2012

I naively went home happy in the knowledge that I could put together a great pair of socks and a kickin' quilt! Well, I soon discovered that my yarn I had set aside for those socks had no memory, which is uber important when making socks, so I was stumped. I got curious about my other find, so I tried making the hexipuff. I have a picture of my first one somewhere, but not to hand so I can't show you. But I decided I might actually be able to make those socks into a hexipuff quilt for my friend. So I cast on the denim yarn and began to make my first large hexipuff in May 2012. 

It went like a dream! I made more and began planning.

I knew I didn't have enough in just two balls of yarn to make a whole quilt, so I thought about what I could match to the denim that would be about the same size yarn. I couldn't quite match it all together, so I decided I'd take them on the road and see what I could find. I found an absolute gem in Abilene, Texas! Yarnies. I love these folks, and I will definitely be going again when I am through Abilene next! Hey, gang! Can't wait to see you all again! I hope you are all well!

There I found the best yarn - Berroco Remix in all sorts of cool, country colors. They went well with the denim, and I was off and running!

Over the next few months I knit hexipuffs in the movies, in bed, at lunchtime, in Starbucks, in the car on trips, and through more than a couple of meetings. I would cast on, knit, turn, fill, and close up each one. Then I came to the realization I would have to get more yarn if I wanted to make a sizable quilt and the denim was no longer being made! I went to my local shop and found they didn't have any of the Remix...so they graciously pointed me to another source and I anxiously awaited my order to arrive.

I want you to understand that I didn't always work on these. I stopped to make several other projects. But as the months wore on, I started to panic and I redoubled my efforts to get this done in time for Christmas.

My next hurdle was to get the layout the way I wanted it. It went through several layouts, some actually attached and then taken apart, before I came up with the framed path pattern.

I developed corner pieces and edges to make the whole thing fit square, and tied sections in order to get the number I lacked to finish.

Many of the colors I had plenty leftover, but a couple of colors I had to pray in order to get enough puffs. Here you can see I had very little yellow left.

Once I had it all tied together I had to decide whether I would close up the spaces or not. The original pattern, by Tiny Owl Knits didn't specify, but I wasn't confident it would go through the washer (it is all made of cotton and reclaimed fibers, after all) and remain intact. I left it for a while and worked on some other projects, all the while pondering if I needed to somehow secure it better.

It wasn't until the very last minute that I decided to sew it all together and I took up needle and thread and began to sew the spaces between the tied corners. One particularly interesting evening at Starbucks garnered a lot of comments from passersby. (It's the most attention I've ever had while knitting, as a matter of fact.)

So the big day came and it was time to unveil the gift. I took a few last shots of it with the homemade card on top and a few technical shots so I would have them for reference for future quilts. Then it was folded into a gift bag and delivered.

Karen, you had to know something was up when my husband accompanied me with a camera!!  hahahahahaha

The next few pictures show what happens when you knit your best friend a hexipuff quilt.

Merry Christmas, my friend!!


Epilogue:

That's it! That's the big secret project I've been keeping! I hope this post honors my dear friend and inspires someone to do this! It's an awesome project and while it feels like you will never finish, it's not detailed enough to make you lose interest. 

Until next time, I hope you're week is filled with lots of fiber fun and interesting projects. I'm back to my toe up socks...got to finish that second pair, since it is obviously not going to get warmer for a few months.

txdonna