Finished: 'I'll have a B please Bob' Blanket

  

If you grew up the 1980s in the UK, you will know the gameshow that inspired this blanket:

Yes, it's Blockbusters.

Image Source

Wikipedia tells me that there was a US version of this show too, but for the uninitiated, it was a gameshow with a hexagon-based board which you worked your way across by selecting letters from the hexagons.

The initial idea for this blanket grew out of the many lovely blankets I pinned to my Pinterest Crochet Inspiration Board. There wasn't a particular hexagon blanket but I love that crochet lends itself so well to bold and graphic designs and wanted to try making hexagons. I used to really dislike granny squares and although I have been at least partially won over, simple and non-fussy designs will always be my favourite.

 

I also wanted to use up some yarn left over from making a ripple baby blanket but of course once this project developed it demanded that wool be bought especially for it. So you know, £30-odd quid later and it had a life of its own. Once I decided on making a hexagon blanket, it wasn't long before Blockbusters came to mind.

It took a while to find the hexagon pattern that worked best for me, but I decided on this one and just added an extra repeat to make them the size I wanted. It would have been easier to attach the hexagons to each other as I went along (there is a way) but this particular style of hexagon didn't really lend itself to that. Plus I wanted to make all the hexagons first and them lay them out to decide on the final design.

 Nice neat back of the blanket

I crocheted them together rather than sewing as I felt this would be neater although it took ages and was quite fiddly due to their edges - would have been so much simpler with squares. But it was all worthwhile as I'm pleased with the finished result.

The yarn I used was Drops Karisma Superwash (brown) and Drops Extra Fine Merino (bright colours). I bought it from The Yarn Cake in Glasgow which is a lovely shop and it's a very well-priced yarn for being pure wool. The Extra Fine Merino is lovely to work with, really soft and makes the Karisma seem a bit rough in comparison, but it's really not and probably wears better in the long term.

 

Obligatory baby photobomb

I leave you with this - the super-geeky Blockbusters Hand Jive that they seemed to do sometimes at the end of the show. It's only 33 seconds long and worth a watch, I promise.

K x