The Hexagonal Crochet Equation

I'm crazy. Or to be more specific, I can tend towards obsessive compulsion when it comes to some crafty projects. Like back when I was obsessed with making little paper stars and cut up the equivalent of a ream of paper and over months and months made thousands in every colour of paper I could find. So it should really be no surprise that I developed a rather complicated production line technique for working on this blanket.

As I was working on the first couple of blocks randomly picking colours for each round I started to think about how many colour combinations I could come up with from all the colours I was using. And if I had paid more attention during grade 12 math, I would have calculated all the permutations and combinations. Instead I decided to start working on the blanket with that methodology.

I grabbed a colour and started making little circles completing rounds one and two of the patterns. I even worked in the ends on each little disc as I worked with the added bonus of not having a million ends to deal with at the end of the project. I made enough discs in each colour to complete the next round with every other colour with my current group of colours. I had 10 colours total, so I made 9 little discs for each one (that's the only thing I remember from math class, one less than total number).

Next I dealt out all the discs into stacks for the rest round, one of each colour for each stack for the round 2 colour and continued on with the crochet factory. More crocheting and then re-dealing for the next round, etc. etc. until all the rounds (and blocks) are completed. Then BOOM 90 blocks are done!

The other cool thing about this blanket is that it's pretty much made with leftover yarn. It started off with the plentiful leftovers from the Jelly Bean Scarf and I spent some time raiding my stash for suitable colour substitutions as the original jelly bean palette runs out. I did spend some time this weekend replenishing the palette with some fresh jelly bean flavours at Effiloché but for the most part it's leftovers.

But the one wrinkle with my insane methodology is that this pattern connects the blocks in the final round. So now I have a whole stack of finished blocks not connected to each other. My preferred look for this blanket is when the blocks sit right next to each other. I did spend some time making a couple rows of connected blocks but it kind of smells having to take out the final round of every other block to connect it to it's neighbors.

Instead of being even MORE crazy and redoing my work, I think I'm going to move forward with the next batch of blocks and connect them to the old blocks when I get to the final round. That was I'll also be able to distribute the original colours with their replacements more evenly over the final blanket.

ETA: I later came across instructions for this hexagon block over here on Attic24.