Crochet
Autumn colours crochet hexagon blanket – Ta-Dah!
Hello to all you lovely people who are following me now. Its been an exciting month with the success of the charity draw but I am glad now to be able to get back to spending more time on my own crochet and crafting projects.
In the middle of all the draw excitement I did manage to finish one of my largest projects – my autumn colours chunky hexagon blanket.
Free tutorials
- Free tutorial hexagon motif
- Free tutorial half hexagon motif
- Free tutorial joining hexagons with the as-you-go method
- My colour scheme for the chunky hexagon blanket using Stylecraft Special Chunky – below in this post
- How it all started with my colour planning for the blanket last autumn
- The design of the border for the blanket – below in this post
The start of the autumn inspired crochet hexagon blanket
Its been a long time in the making. I planned the colour scheme and tried out some hexagon motifs back on my trip to the Northumberland coast in October 2014. The first few hexagons were completed and I was finally happy with my colour choices around the beginning of December.
By then I was happily joining with with the Attic24 crochet-along to make the cosy stripe blanket, which I finished on Boxing Day 2014. During the dark winter evenings I have done a few hexagons here and there, joining them row by row with some help from coffee and cake.
Slowly, slowly, this very warm and retro-styled blanket has emerged.
The big ta-Dah! moment
And here it is… I have to say I am very pleased with the way its turned out. Its big, bold and beautiful with definitely autumnal rich colours AND a retro vibe going on…
The finished blanket is big and chunky and fits well as a cover to my King sized bed from the base to the start of the pillows. I made the straight edges the top and the bottom and left the points of the hexagons on each side. It looks good against the neutral tones of the rest of the bedroom.
My final colour scheme
I did a lot of planning initially and then used my yarn pegs to plan each row. My original scheme got changed as I saw how the colours worked together, but I don’t think that matters. Its all about experimentation and learning how colours go together.
I’ve listed below the yarn colours that I used and the overall scheme and would be happy if you wanted to make your own version. But its not necessary to duplicated each hexagon in order. The colours all work together so well and you can have a lot of fun making that part of your own design.
Colours used
All the yarn was Stylecraft Chunky, which is 100% acrylic giving you a hard-wearing and washable blanket. Very practical.
I used less than one ball of each colour to finish the blanket in my size, which was 9 rows of 8 hexagons plus the half hexagons required and the border. In total I made 72 hexagons and the blanket is almost square.
- The centres of each hexagon: I chose three dark colours; dark brown, burgundy and emperor (purple).
- Round 2 of each hexagon: these vary but include one brighter colour from magenta, meadow, spice, raspberry, plum, copper, gold, khaki, pomegranate and lipstick.
- Round 3 of each hexagon is in a lighter colour: camel or cream or parchment,
- Round 4, which is the joining round, again includes one brighter colour from magenta, meadow, spice, raspberry, plum, copper, gold, khaki, pomegranate and lipstick.
My overall scheme was to have one row with dark brown centres, a brighter colour, camel, a brighter colour.
This row alternated with one that incorporated:
- One hexagon with emperor, brighter colour, parchment, brighter colour
- One hexagon with emperor, brighter colour, cream, brighter colour
- One hexagon with burgundy, brighter colour, parchment, brighter colour
- One hexagon with burgundy, brighter colour, cream, brighter colour
You can see this colour scheme more clearly in the next photos as I’ve added labels:
The chunky crochet hexagon blanket border
The border is very easy. It consists of 6 rounds, all made from double crochet stitches (single crochets if you use US terms).
- Round 1: I started with Camel and made one dc into every stitch of the outside of the blanket. For the half hexagons, I made two dc stitches into each treble post. At the apex of each point on two sides of the blanket I made a dc, 3 chains and another dc. This keeps the points through each round of the border.
- Round 2: Next up was Copper and I made one dc into every dc of round 1, with a dc, 3 chains and a dc at each apex.
- Round 3: Using Gold then started doing what is often called linen stitch. One dc into one stitch of the previous round, one chain, miss a dc of round 2, one dc. Repeat all round with a dc, 3 chains and a dc at each apex..
- Round 4: Burgundy was next with another complete round of linen stitch but there is no need to miss a stitch. Just make each dc into the chain space, then make a chain.As before, make a dc, 3 chains and a dc at each apex.
- Round 5: Raspberry repeating round 4 again.
- Round 6: Using Plum I made one dc, one chain, one dc into each space with a dc, 3 chains and a dc at each apex..
Using this pattern and tutorial
This pattern and tutorial is free and you can use it to make blankets for yourself or for others. You can sell your blankets but it would be nice to credit me for the design. Please do not take the photos or the text of the tutorials and publish them, even with a link back to my site, as that is against UK Copyright Law. Pinning on Pinterest is fine – as long as you pin from here.
Beautiful blanket! Thanks for sharing
Hi unsure if has been asked but how many different balls of yarn did you use? I know you didn’t use full balls of all of them but confused myself when tried to count how many different colours you used and tried to work out how much would need
I’m really sorry but I have no idea – this project was started over 3 years ago now and I didn’t intend at the time to write it up as a pattern, I’ve only done the vague instructions since then. I don’t think I used more than one ball of each colour if that helps, but I can’t be completely sure xxx
I absolutely love your hexagon afghan and am so inspired. I am so looking forward to making one of my own! Thank-you so much for sharing!
Hi. i love your blanket. I have been looking online for several days to make a perfect hexagon blanket. It is my first project. In the color scheme that you have provided earlier it doesn’t mention the meadow and magenta color. When do we plug in those two colors. Your blanket looks perfect and i want to make something very similar. Since this is my first project, i don’t want to mess up anything. Thank you very much in advance.
Hi Anu
Thanks for your message on my blog and I’m so glad you’ve been reading about my hexagon blanket.
You are right, the magenta and meadow are not in the original colour scheme – I added them after seeing how the blanket came together and just added them both in at random with the other colours. I think they help lift the whole blanket as they are lighter and a bit brighter than the others.
I only used the magenta and meadow in the third or fifth rounds of the hexagons – they were used with the other colours in the mid tonal range such as the copper, raspberry, khaki, gold, spice, plum, lipstick etc xxx
I’d love to see a picture of your blanket when its finished. Kathryn xxxx
That is gorgeous! Love the colours 🙂
Lovely. Have started mine. Noticed you do not state how much yarn is required, how many motifs, how many rows? Any suggestions would be grand…
Very good point Carol – I will make some edits 🙂 I didn’t use up one ball of each colour (it comes in 100g balls). I’ll put the number of motifs in mine and how many in each row etc but that part is very much up to you… You can make it the size you want. A bit smaller for a lap blanket, longer and thinner for a single bed, or bigger to completely cover a King Sized bed xxx
Your blanket is wonderful and very pretty!
Corine
x
I am accepting the challenge lol. This is absolutely beautiful
This is simply gorgeous. I often look at the Stylecraft Special Chunky (and Aran), and find the range of colours a bit limited and very random – few obvious colour schemes jump out at me – but you’ve made the colours work together really well. I love the border, particularly the wavy sides. For me, part of the charm of using shapes like hexagons is the irregular shape it gives along the edges.
Wow love your blanket. Thanks for all the info you provided.
Thanks
What a beautiful blanket, truly stunning work! Congratulations on raising so much money for such a worthwhile cause.