One last little Christmas present to give away while I'm here: a bunny tails hat for a wee girl cousin. This was a last-minute gift that I had to find yarn for, but I was pleased to find a very nice yarn store in the local area (and trust me people, this is a big deal because there's not anything in the local area!). The chocolate brown of this Lana Grossa Merino 2000 caught my eye right away, so I decided to make a brown bunny with little pink bows. And a white cotton tail, of course.

I'm so pleased with how this came out. It was a heikle Sache at first with some gauge issues and some reknitting. I wasn't expecting this sport weight yarn to work on a US7 needle, but it has a wonderful body and sproing that makes it knit up soooo nice. I finished up the ears in the dark shortly after midnight while watching some locals shoot off fireworks and ended up making one ear a wee bit longer than the other, but I think it adds personality to the little guy, don't you?

Here's hoping this adorable new year's bunny is a sign of happy knits to come in the new year.

We're off to the airport soon to make the long trip home. Flying west from Europe to America is tougher with the kiddos because it's all daytime and they don't feel like sleeping. We tried to send the boys to bed a little early last night telling them that they really needed their energy for the flight home and they said, "yeah, cause it's boring." Yes, indeed.

We've packed lots of books and activity books for them as well as a few dvd's that they can watch on the computer. As a general antidote to the boredom around here, I give you a list of some of our favorite German games. I've mentioned the German games that we play a few times here and some of you have asked for some recommendations. Here ya go!

Family/grown up games:

Settlers of Catan - THE German game

Ticket to Ride - we gave this one to my sister-in-law and her family this year

Carcassonne - one of our faves

TransAmerica - cute little strategy game

Blokus - abstract tetris-style game for those whose brains work like that - the boys love this one

Lost Cities - great two-player card game

Wizard - awesome trick-taking card game

For the kids:

Hey, that's my fish! - we presented this game to S's class in show and tell and they thought the little penguin pieces were so cool

Chicken Cha Cha - awesome memory-style game for kids! - S's classmates liked this game the most because the German title translates to Zig Zag Chicken Poop!

Highly Suspect - a clever little dexterity and logic game with nice wooden pieces

They're not German, but they're fun:

Give Me the Brain & Save Doctor Lucky - gotta put in a word for these hilarious games from "Cheapass Games"!

And if you've got 8 or 10 people, you gotta play Werewolf

Have fun! We won't.

This is cool. We left Iceland at about 5pm and arrived in Boston at the same time. It's a 5 hour flight to America and there's a 5 hour time difference between the two countries. Which all means that it was 5pm for the entire trip. The view out the window was eerily constant - the sunset frozen shortly before sundown, the sky turning dark only as we finally turned to fly south down the eastern coastline of the US. Local time 5 o'clock.

But let's go back to 5pm the night before....

For our last night in Germany, we lit the candles on the tree one last time (yes, the family still uses real candles!) and I finished weaving in the last ends on the in-laws' afghan. I didn't even have to stay up till 5am to get it all done!

Finally done, I could go to bed and get some sleep for the next day's trip. We got the airport in plenty of time, check-in was easy peasy (there's so much less stress when you're flying to Iceland - still in Europe - first!) and the kids had plenty of time to play in Kiddieland before we had to go through security.

wee one is sharing her Zwieback with Ernie

The kids waited excitedly for the trip to start.

And once on the plane, wee one enjoyed my book (well, the cover at least) before settling in for a good nap.

But the boys were too entertained by Iceland Air's fun stuff for kids and "How it's Made" on the in-flight entertainment and forgot to sleep. They woke up at 3am this morning and here's how they were at dinner tonight (we had to go out to eat because we haven't had time to buy any food yet).

Wake up, boys, it's only 5 o'clock!

Here's something I'm soooo excited about! Starting later this week, I'll be teaching a little after-school knitting class to first through fifth graders at my boys' elementary school. I've always wanted to do this!

I've been poking around the bookstore and library to find some good resources for teaching kids to knit and cute patterns that the kids can actually make. I want to have a nice collection of projects that can be made out of simple pieces and basic shapes. A scarf, a flat hat, a headband are great options and are in all the kids' knitting books like Melanie Falick's must-have book, Kids Knitting. But I also wanted to find some projects that kids will be really excited to make. And I got really excited when I saw Kids Learn to Knit by Lucinda Guy (I looove her other books, especially And So to Bed which has Otto the Owl in it!).

Just look at how she transforms a knitted square into a funny toy!

I want to make one of these just for me! I'm really psyched about this find. The whole book has the same sort of whimsical attitude that her other books do with cute drawings and fun pictures and the knitting instructions are written with the same approach. Man, I just like her style.

Melanie Falick's book is an excellent resource though with great info and patterns as well as little chapters on finger knitting and yarn dyeing and making knitting needles - all things I'm thinking about trying with the kids. I'm also planning on doing some spool knitting with them - although it's something I've never really done before. Any suggestions on what the kiddos could do with lots of i-cord? And any other tips or resources you can recommend would be much appreciated!

supplies!

I've heard that at least half of the students who signed up are girls from the boys' classes. I hope they have a good time cause I see all their moms all the time!

Seems like everything I'm working on right now is a secret present, long overdue. I've got a handful of sewing to do to complete my Christmas presents, none of which I can show you because people are watching, you know. Then there's the knitting projects! The big afghan may be done, but there's another large, lingering project still on the needles - no I can't show you that one either - and something only slightly smaller which I hope to be able to finish and reveal next week.

But oooooh, I wish I could show you some of these now because I am so excited about all of them! It's hard when you're excited about a project and you can't tell anyone! The worst is when the super cool projects are for your super cool crafting buddies (who else you going to make those übercool projects for, right?). You've got no one to get all psyched about the project with you. I can't reasonably expect hubby to get it when I go on about how perfect a certain fabric is or how interesting a specific pattern is. Poor hubby, who is patiently waiting for me to make him some more warm socks right after I finish my gift knitting. Maybe February, dear.

So back I go into the void to finish my secret projects in solitude. Wishing I could bring you with me for a sneak peek and a wee squee.

She's off again! Ten months old and wee one's already made two trips to Europe and is embarking on her second trip to New York City.

We're on our way to visit grandma to show her how we're starting to walk and to deliver one or two of those secret gifties I couldn't tell you about to a friend. See ya in the streets of NYC (Sullivan Street for sure!)....

Almost exactly one year ago, two of my best friends threw me an amazing baby shower where all my knitbuddies made baby booties for wee one. This Saturday, I got a little payback when I got to go to one of those friend's own baby shower and bring a gaggle of itty bitty hats from the Knitsmiths.

My offering was the marshmallow bonnet, which I knit in Blue Sky Alpaca's most incredibly soft Handspun Organic Cotton. It's practically like cashmere, but no animal fibers (Shannon's allergic)! I knit this same pattern for wee one over a year ago but it must have happened in some baby-brain haze because I didn't remember anything about how it was constructed! The other hats are (almost) all from the Itty-Bitty Hats book, including a Stars hat from Johanna, a Marley hat from Thea, a pink stripey hat from Colleen, a Bunny Tails hat from Dani, and an Upside-Down Daisy hat from Lisa. Shannon was surprised and happy to be remembered by all her old Boston buddies.

I also did a little sewing for her new baby. Baby's grandmother is an incredible quilter, so I was pretty sure that baby would be all set with beautiful quilts, but when I happened to come across a fabric panel of one of Shannon's favorite children's stories, The Little Engine that Could, I knew I had to make her a little fabric book. The panel wasn't made to be a book - there weren't the right number of blocks and they weren't in proper page groupings for a book - so I had to do some finessing to make it work. Plus, it was all very, very basic blue check and Shannon is having a fabulous little girl, soooo I had to gather up fun and fabulous coordinating fabrics to pretty it up a little.

Despite the myriad difficulties that arose while I was making this (like the final book being too big to fit under the presser foot of my machine!), it was a pleasure to make. Whenever I got frustrated, the happy little train's chant of "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" helped spur me on to finish it.

Lastly, the big present for Shannon's baby... see if you can recognize it....

Yes, it's an unfinished hemlock ring blanket! I tried my best to get it done in time. I had even started the bind off, but there was no way to get it blocked before the shower, so I wrapped it up as nice as I could for the ceremonial opening and then snuck it back into my bag to take home to finish. More pics of it blocking, etc. to come!

Best wishes to Shannon for the last couple of months of her pregnancy. Thanks for giving me a reason to make these wonderful projects and the opportunity to pay you back for my own awesome baby shower. We can't wait to see Cheezit in her little hats!

And now the promised more info regarding the hemlock ring blanket I've been working on for Shannon's baby.

The yarn is Classic Elite's Classic Silk. Shannon is allergic to wool, which left me with some difficult searching for the right yarn for the job. Jared Flood's version of the blanket is so charming in the rustic, aran weight eco wool. I wanted to keep as much of that feel as possible, but unfortunately, cottons usually come in bright, summery colors and shiny, mercerized solids. They also tend to be either too textured for lace work or stretch out too much to hold a complex pattern. And I don't even want to talk about how wrong it would be to use a really large-gauge cotton for anything! After looking for a long time, I settled on the Classic Silk in this tweedy red. The dk weight meant I could follow the original pattern and the blanket should end up baby sized. The color was right for Shannon (it also comes in a lovely tweedy pink that I would have loved to use, but Shannon had mentioned being a bit pink-ed out with baby girl stuff and I knew she'd prefer the red). The yarn is extremely soft - I love tweedy yarns that are actually soft! - and it holds its shape excellently - just look at how those yarnovers are opening up! I just hope the silk won't be a problem for the little one.

Now, I did read that there's an error in some line of the pattern. I kept seeing that mentioned on some blog or some ravelry page and always tried to remind myself to look that up again when I got to that round. Then, after my first night of knitting (in Germany with the in-laws), I realized I must have passed that round. Nothing went wrong on mine, leaving me to conclude that it was one of those knitting-by-the-instructions and not knitting-by-the-gist types of things. I'd kind of gotten the idea of what was going on and had stopped reading each little instruction, so I missed the error entirely! But if you're a beginner or find the patterning confusing, definitely take the time to find that mistake and correct your copy of the pattern. As you can guess, I enjoyed the pattern very much. That center flower is so beautiful, it's well worth some of those crazy rounds and the feather and fan section has a very comfortable rhythm, with four rounds of stockinette (did I mention that I love stockinette?!) and then one little round of cool patterning. Niiiiiiiice.

I don't really know why I'm bothering to tell you all this, since I'm sure you ALL have already knit one of these. I'm the last one. As usual. Well, acutally, since it's for Shannon's baby and I got the idea from her ravelry queue, I guess that means that Shannon still hasn't knit one! Hee, hee!

Can you hear my gritted teeth? I've been making i-cord for two days now, preparing for my next after-school knitting class with the kids.

We started with knitting spools last week. Some of the girls managed an inch or so of knitted cord, a couple made more, and a few did nothing at all (says 8-year old who looked out the window during my demonstration: "I didn't get it.") This week, I'm bringing in some i-cord and some craft ideas. Hopefully, they'll make some things and be inspired to make a little more i-cord with their knitting spools.

I found several pretty and basic i-cord projects in this awesome book my mom spied at Purl this weekend.

It's called Girls' Best Book of Knitting, Sewing, and Embroidery and it really has projects at just the right level for crafty little girls. The projects are all very stylish and cute and the instructions kept very simple. I'll be making these little i-cord/felt flowers with the girls in my knitting class.

In the sewing section, there's funny sock and glove creatures:

And even patterns to make clothes for the sweet little cardboard doll you can pop out of the cover:

There's so much more in this book. Check it out if you've got crafty girls in your house. Oooooh, I can't wait until I can start crafting with wee one!

First wee one over the weekend, then daddy, then mommy, then big brother B and finally yesterday, big brother S succumbed to the stomach virus that's been going around. I gave him a little company by relapsing again and have spent the last 24 hours on the couch. I'd almost forgotten that we have a computer in the house - or a refrigerator full of food, for that matter!

Back on the mend, I'm getting around to unpacking from my weekend trip, doing all the laundry (that's stomach virus laundry - yuck!) and when those are done, organizing a few sewing projects. I got some fabric on the trip - can't wait to show you.....

Seems like ages ago that I used to drive down to the New Haven Ikea with the boys to meet up with grandma for the afternoon. Once Ikea finally opened a store in our area we stopped making those long trips down to New Haven and I actually did a lot less shopping at Ikea. But last weekend when I was thinking of a good place to stop with the baby on our road trip down to NYC, my mom suggested our old friend, the New Haven Ikea: it's about half way, has food, comfortable spots for nursing, and lots of space for wee one to walk around and see interesting things. It was brilliant!

She loved the kids' furniture area. And I spied some fun fabric there too!

Ikea quilt!! Actually, all of their fabric is way cool, but the very large scale of the prints in most of them make them difficult to imagine in a quilt. Better for curtains and such. But these stripes are so fun and could totally work. I just gotta find the right pattern. And maybe make another visit to get some coordinating solids. Hee, hee, hee. Wee one won't mind the trip!

Me: "Boys, why do you have today off from school?"

B: "It's King..."
S: "Martin Jr....."
B: "Luther...."
S: "Martin Luther...."
B & S: "King Day"

Me: "And who is Martin Luther King Jr.?"

B: "He's our King!"

Me: "Naaah, we don't have a king."

B: "Oh, right."
S: "We have presidents!"

Me: "Yes. So who was Martin Luther King Jr.?"

S: "He was special. He was nice."

Block of the Month, that is....

It's January, the start of a new year-long block of the month program at my lqs. This is such a cool program that quilt shops do, I just have to tell you about it. (To all you long-time quilters out there, please excuse my newbie enthusiasm - we simply don't have this sort of thing at knitting stores!) So here's how it goes: you pay a very small fee (usually only a few bucks) and in the first month, you get a little packet with instructions and pre-cut fabric to make one quilt block. If you show up the next month with your block all finished, you get the next packet for the next block for free. If you miss the designated day or don't finish your previous block, you have to pay your little fee again to get your next packet. But if you manage to get your block done each month, that means that at the end of the year, you'll have twelve coordinating blocks - the makings of a lovely quilt top - for like five bucks!

And here's the really cool part and why this is such a brilliant thing for the quilters and the stores: when you go to pick up your block, the BOM group gets a quickie tutorial on making the block, as well as a show and tell of new stuff in the store, recommendations for new books and patterns, previews of upcoming fabric lines and events, and a first grab at some sale items. It's like being a preferred customer with a special in on everything going on in the store. Wouldn't it be cool to have that kind of relationship with your lys? I'm not sure there's any sort of similarly universal project that the yarn stores could dole out month-by-month like quilt blocks though. But, an excuse to come back to the store each month - when they find it, sign me up!

See ya some time later this month with block number one done!

Getting ready for my kids' knitting class again. So far, I've got four girls knitting, one saying she can knit but doesn't want to, two spooling pretty confidently, and four goofing off. The i-cord craft projects saved the day last week, entertaining the non-knitters for the hour while I got the first four all set up with needles. For today, I've set up yarn and needles for those last seven to see if I can't get them started knitting too.

The girls and I are enjoying the little knitting poem from Melanie Falick's Kids Knitting book that helps you remember the steps of the knit stitch. I never quite got the one about 'in the door', 'through the window' and 'off jumps jack' and all that. What's the door, why does it switch to a window and who's jack? Didn't make sense to me, so I'm not going to teach it! I love this one about the sheep though: 'Under the fence, catch the sheep, back we come, off we leap.' I may have changed a word or two from Melanie Falick's version, but I really feel like this rhyme better captures what's going on. The under the fence has been really helpful for when the girls want to insert the right needle and cross it over and on top the left needle. We imagine the left needle is the fence and they must go under it. Why? To catch the sheep, of course, who runs around the back of the needle as we wrap the yarn. We catch him when we bring the yarn between the needle tips and then, as we bring the needle back out we make sure that he doesn't get away. I love that image of catching the sheep because it really helps the kids spot that new loop of yarn that we're making. And off we leap with the sheep!

Over my seven years of knitting, I've never really picked up the 'knitting for home' books. I've always wanted to make garments. Maybe a baby blanket, a stuffed animal or two, but things for the home? I don't have that sort of a home - you know, the kind with ruffly things and lacy things and clean things. My home is books, toys and functional ikea furniture. Every surface is covered with kids' stuff, craft stuff, and more kids stuff. No vases or pretty bowls or little art pieces. And no room for those lovely cushions and pretty pretty decorative items that one finds in the 'knitting for home' books.

But then I started making blankets. It started with wee one's blankie, then new blankies for the boys, then the afghan for my in-laws, and now I'm quilting. Why am I so obsessed recently with blankets? Am I just cold? Blankets may possibly be the only home decor item that won't seem out of place in my home. Is there a natural progression from knitting for yourself to knitting for your home? After clothing yourself and your family in handknits is the next step to fill your home with them?

Fact is, those knitting for home books look a lot more appealing to me these days. And one that's just caught my eye is Erika Knight's newest book, Classic Knits at Home: 15 Timeless Designs to Knit and Keep Forever.

I love that throw on the cover! It's so cool. First of all, it's hexagons - I've already been dreaming about making a hexagon quilt. And second, it's a combination of knitted hexagons in different stitch patterns and fabric hexagons from different fabrics. I love the idea of combining fabric and knitting in a traditional pattern. That's what Erika Knight's done so well in this book. The patterns are classic and traditional, but they have something fresh and new about them too. Check out this awesome houndstooth pillow. Modern houndstooth - coool!

Erika Knight's other new book, Glamour Knits at Home is also gorgeous but those things have no business being in my house. In my home, that incredible chinoiserie beadspread (again a mix of knitting and fabric!) would be covered in nutella, baby spit-up and first-grader sized shoeprints in no time! Still, the things are so amazing. Even though I neither own a beautiful teapot, nor have a spot to display a beautiful teapot, I feel an intense desire to make this divine little teapot cozy knit from strips of tulle!

Yeaaaaaahhhh, I'll probably be sticking to the hexagon throw. Maybe I could even felt down some old sweaters and cut hexagons from them as well. The pattern just has so many possibilities! Here I go, getting all excited about a blanket again....

They've completely forgotten about the tiger and lion stuffed animals I'm supposed to be making for them. I started the little animals in the summer, put them aside for a while and promised to finish them for Christmas. Since I'm actually still not done with all my Christmas crafting, I figure they're not really late yet. But as technicalities like this are usually lost on the boys, I've tried to sneak in a few days work on them so there's some progress to show in case they happen to remember!

The pattern has you work your way up the little animals' bodies, starting with feet and shoes (oops, forgot them for the picture!), then legs and back and the pieces I've just finished up, the arms and tummy. Next comes the head (in two parts) and the ears. Then the nightmare of sewing all these tiny pieces together.

I think they're going to turn out to be pretty cute though.

In July, that is, when I'm finally all done with them!

Finally, I've finished my Christmas crafting! Shortly before we left for Germany, I found this awesome fabric online called Knitmare on Elm Street from Michael Miller. I ordered enough of it to make myself and my knitting buddies cute little knitting bags. I didn't get around to finishing them though until this week. The pattern is yet another awesome project from Amy Karol's book Bend-the-Rules Sewing. It's the "simple tote" and is just perfect for making a small bag with a small amount of special fabric.

Back to the fabric. On this side I pieced together two fabrics called Knit Pirates (with the knitting needles) and Quilt Pirates (those are the scissors). How trendy is this fabric?! Pink and brown, skull and crossbones - it's what all the cool kids are sporting these days! And on the back, there's the hilarious Knitmare on Elm Street fabric with images of the knitmares that happen to us all.

The dog that chews the knitting, the cat that unravels the yarn, the kid that doesn't appreciate the sweater and my favorite, the quick and easy knitting project that goes on so long you think you're gonna die! And I did the inside of the bag in a fabric that looks like knitted socks from the Moda Funky Sock Monkey fabric line (more from me on this whole line of fabrics later this week!). Isn't it just perfect for the inside facing of a knitting bag, though?!

I had a blast making these. The pattern is adorable, with a teeny inside pocket and a funny long strap that fits into the short strap. And it's totally easy to readjust the size if you want a smaller or larger bag (I made mine a bit smaller than the pattern called for so that they're the perfect size for a little sock or baby project). Amy Karol also suggests lining her bags and quilts with flannel instead of some sort of batting. I really like the way the finished bag feels with the flannel lining - it gives the bag just enough shape, but isn't heavy or bulky at all. I may have to try using it in a quilt next time!

So, um, merry Christmas in late January to me and my knit buddies. Here's hoping the knit pirates keep any actual knitmares at bay. Aaaaargh!

We all know I love those sock monkeys on the funky monkey fabrics by Moda. Did you know that in addition to having prints with those funny little monkeys, prints that look like knitted socks (see my post yesterday), and even prints with bandages (for when the monkeys bump their heads!), there is also a panel with the whole "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" story? Knitbuddy Johanna got the panel for wee one for Christmas and last week I sewed it up into a book for her.

Five funky monkeys jumping on the bed.... momma called the doctor.....

Like the "Little Engine that Could" panel that I used to make a fabric book for Shannon's baby, this one wasn't set up to be made into a book. It required a little extra cutting and rearranging (but only a little as the story is MUCH shorter!). Since I was already doing the extra couple of steps, I decided to make a fun binding for the book's pages with the dotted fabric surrounding the story squares.

This last little monkey on the bed is my favorite, along with the dizzy one on the back cover. Will those funny funky monkeys never learn from their mistakes?

Now wee one has her sock monkey book, but is that enough for me? Oh no. Two weeks ago when I went to NYC and visited Purl Patchwork, the woman working in the store as we came in just happened to be cutting up fat quarters of all their funky monkey fabric to sell as fabric bundles. I didn't need any more encouragement than that! I got a funky monkey fat quarter bundle and have also picked up some fat quarters of the follow-up line called Monkey n' Around, where the sock monkeys return to bounce on pogo sticks and play jacks.

I've already started cutting pieces to make this quilt because it just looks like so much fun. Man I love those sock monkeys!

PS - Attention all sock junkies: a little bird told me that Sunshine Yarns has started a new website and Dani is kicking things off with a ton of new Harry Potter colorways like Gillyweed and my favorite, Weasleys Wizard Wheezes! They look so great! All this fabulous sock yarn and all these cute sock monkeys are making me want to knit socks again....(yes, yes, more on that to come later this week!)

Time for first grade knitting again! This week I thought I'd take a break from forcing all my first graders to sit and try to knit and instead talk to them a little bit about all the different places yarn comes from. And who better to help me out with the question of where yarn comes from than Clara Parkes, author of the most excellent book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn!

Last year Clara played a little mystery yarn game with some of us, sending us teeny mini-skeins of mystery yarns and leaving us to test our knowledge of yarn and guess their content.

I'll be bringing in some of those wonderful yarns to show the girls in my class, so they can see the wide range of fibers that are used to make yarns. With a few additions from my stash, we can play a guessing game of our own, trying to match up each yarn with the picture of its source.

 
sheep & goats

 
bunny & cotton

 
alpaca & silkworm

 
flax & wood pulp

 
yak & buffalo

I'll have Clara's book for back-up, in case they want to know why sheep's wool is the most common and popular source of yarn (it's hygroscopic - look it up in Clara's book! - flame retardant and very resilient), whether angora comes from angora goats or angora bunnies (it's bunnies; the goats produce mohair), why alpacas spit so much (possibly self-defense against all those squealy, touchy school kids that visit them in the petting zoo), how on earth we can get yarn from a worm (the worm can secrete 800 yards of fibroin in one continuous thread!), and why you might ever want to get yarn from a yak (his rugged, warm coat can be spun into a rugged, warm coat for you too). I'll also bring my little mole book with the story of how little mole gathered up flax and washed it and combed it and found other animals to spin it, weave it and cut and sew it into trousers.

I hope it's cute enough to entertain the kids for a few minutes at least. If not, I've just got to hope that the snacks hold out long enough to get us through the period!

I couldn't help myself.

After writing about the patchwork hexagon throw on the cover of Erika Knight's new book, Classic Knits at Home, last week, I had to start knitting hexagons. What a great project for using up some of the yarns I have in my core stash (that untouched core stash of yarns I bought ages ago for some sweater I never knit, but have never been able to part with)! First up out of the core stash, some GGH Via Mala in chocolate brown (coming soon, this same yarn in pale pink and beige - good colors for a blanket, right?).

Hexagon number one is in double moss stitch and number two is in a stockinette/garter stripe. Love that effect on the second one!

What I really loved about this pattern is its mixture of knitting and fabric. I've already pulled out these old sweaters from the closet to use for at least some of the "fabric" hexagons.

I haven't decided if I want to felt them or not. I'm not even sure all of them will felt. And I'm not averse to steeking them. That way they'll have the same knitted look as the hexagons I'm knitting now. A throw that will use up stash yarns and old sweaters?! This... is... AWESOME!

Except for the math. So here's the math problem: how do you measure a hexagon? Erika Knight, rather unhelpfully, gives the hexagons' proper measurement as 7" x 7". Um, that's not enough sides. It's not a square. It's not even an octagon that fits neatly into a square. It's a regular hexagon, with each side the same length, meaning that it is wider at its widest point than it is tall (uhhh, something about it being made from equilateral triangles and the hypotenuse being longer than the height of the two right triangles in each triangle, blah, blah, math, math...).

So what could the two equal measurements she gives refer to? A hexagon fits into a circle, soooo is the 7" the diagonal line between each of the points (or what would be the diameter of the circle that fits around the hexagon)? Then why give two measurements? In quilting, a hexagon's size is usually described by just one measurement: the length of each side. I'm confused.

Look, all I need to know is what size should my hexagons be? I'll be using different yarns, so I need to have some idea of what size things should be. Her gauge info is, again rather disappointingly, no help since she only gives one gauge and that's in stockinette stitch, whereas all the hexagons are done in a variety of different stitch patterns from seed stitch to ribbing and even a cable! And I need to know what size should I cut my sweater hexagons.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the hexagons, but oh, do I ever miss those mitred afghan squares!