Hexagon motif blanket

[Nedrian]

i started this blanket months ago during one of the granny-a-long months and finished it soon after. i didn't have a decent camera at the time it was finally finished so i couldn't post the final blanket once it was finished. :/
 
after buying a camera recently and trying to take a picture of the entire blanket, i soon realized even the new camera isn't really working out the way i had planned. the blanket is big enough to cover a full size bed with ample blanket left over hanging off all the edges and includes pretty much any color imaginable. i think because of this, my camera, when i take a picture of the entire blanket, has issues... all the colors blur together and everything's so blurry that it's just bleh.

so with that said, i only have a small portion of the blanket pictured:









i feel awful having completing this ginormous project, definitely my largest project ever... and it being too colorful for my camera to take a picture of. :/ if anyone has any tips i'd greatly appreciate it so that i can post more stuffs.

here's the free pattern of the hexagons: http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/blue-ribbon-afghans-kaleidoscope

[fantasticmio]

It looks great!  Lots of work, and executed well. ^_^

As for the pictures, I find with my camera, natural light makes all the difference.  My pictures are dark and fuzzy without it, and full of glare and weird colours with the flash, but if I get the sun on it at the right level, everything looks great!

Though, some colours are easier to shoot than others...

[KLKing]

It's so georgeous! I am so in Love with the starburst effect you achieved!
Aren't you glad you finished it?

[RhymeswOrange]

How lovely.  What a great project!

[Lucy_Stardust]

its beautiful!!!!!!

[Kittymom13]

Great job!  I've seen that book at the library!  You're finished blankie(pictures being what they may) looks just as good if not better than the one w/the pattern!  =]

[Nedrian]

the pictures i took were with natural light; my camera just makes the final picture all fuzzy and the blanket pretty much unrecognizable. :/ wish i could borrow someone's really nice camera for a day or so... would make me happy happy. /wish!

i am sooo glad it's finished. it took pretty much a total of 3 months and i have roughly 100 hexagons put into this blanket with a few left over i was considering making into a pillow (blocking them all was tedious...). but i thought that'd look corny so they're around, somewhere, waiting... each hexagon ended up being 6 inches across from the bottom left point to the bottom right point if you have one point facing down.

thanks so much for the compliments/replies. finishing it and having it around is one thing, but having people that actually understand the work involved acknowledging something you've made is a lot more than just the passerby,"ohh... how pretty. why don't you sell it for 100 bucks?" comments. if only they knew the time involved...

thanks again!

[AGPhotographix]

I love the shapes you created in this blanket, whether you are happy with the photos or not. I love your color palette. What a huge project to take on! You did an awesome job.. wish I had the crochet skills you do!

[Muddlepud]

I love hexagon blankets! The patterns on these are particularly nice.

[Stars_Fire_17]

its beautiful

[pennydreadfull]

OMG this is absolutely beatutiful and very, very inspiring!  I've wanted a granny square blanket pretty much my whole life.  I just started crocheting last year and am intimidated by such a large project.  I've been thinking of starting one after the holidays (after christmas crafts and gifts are done!) and this had totally encouraged me to do it!!

[Nedrian]

as far as my color palette, i just grabbed literally everything i had in my yarn stash at the time and went with those colors. i didn't buy any other yarn than what i already had on-hand because i wanted to try and get rid of what i already had. even after this monster...

i have tons left because i didn't want to overuse any particular color... the stash is the same size by numbers of balls of yarn pretty much, just smaller quantities of everything. :/

for anyone really considering making this blanket, i would strongly suggest that while picking out your colors to pick out tons upon tons of neutrals that aren't too dark or light. pure white is ok if not used too often, and so is black... but too much of them really takes the attention away from all the other colors i felt, so i did a lot of ripping back when joining them all together... and ripping hexagons apart. i probably took 20 of them apart as i was going, learning which colors accent each other and which attempts at "trying to tone down this neon looking green with something else".

i'm no art teacher, nor do i know much about which colors go well with what... it was all trial and error for me. i still don't really have an idea on how to plan a good color scheme... just tried to make each hexagon look good individually. so for anyone color-challenged like me... be prepared.

i may take some more pictures of my personal favorite hexagons by themselves later on if anyone would be interested so i can show more of it.

[elderflower]

Such a lot of work but your efforts have really paid off.  It is like a collection of jewels or a stained galss window.  So beautiful. Thank you for sharing it

[amymarie78]

Amazing!  Maybe i'll get there some day soon!

[Nedrian]

after playing around with my camera, i found a few settings. one included taking 3 pictures at once and i did that with about 100 pictures, then went through all sets of them picking out the least blurry ones...

close ups:



























close ups of the joining:





of the back:







close up of the joining in the back:



sorry about all the pics, but at least i feel satisfied now.

[babukatorium]

Amazing work! Fantastic colors! @;)

[suzeqz]

Now this is just COOL!!! I am so jealous of your joining technique! I'm finishing a granny 'ghan that was started by someone else...I have just a few big (3-round) squares to finish, but I've already started joining the little (2-round) squares that'll make up the border. However, they're all "off" from each other, no matter what I do. Yours looks absolutely WONDERFUL and you're joining hexes which is even more difficult than joining squares! And the close-ups from the second set of photos make it look even better. I am just in awe! Besides the fact that you did a fantabulous job of grouping colors for each hex. My fave is the blue, grey and white one in the last photo.

[Meggs]

This is a beautiful piece of art.  I made a block blanket like this and it took forever too!  And your pictures do all the details justice.  In my experience the only way to get a good photo of the whole thing is a super camera, or taking multiple pics of smaller areas and stitching them together in photoshop to make one huge photo.  But the photos you have now are showing it beautifully.  Great job! Keep it up!

[Nedrian]

Now this is just COOL!!! I am so jealous of your joining technique! I'm finishing a granny 'ghan that was started by someone else...I have just a few big (3-round) squares to finish, but I've already started joining the little (2-round) squares that'll make up the border. However, they're all "off" from each other, no matter what I do.

did you go through the hair-pulling-out experience of blocking each individual square? for any project that requires joining of any type of motif, i really see it as a necessity to block now... i actually began joining the hex's together without blocking them at first but after 2 rows of them... i realized blocking was going to be absolutely needed. :/

[I Sew Cute]

That is so pretty! Like a kalideoscope!

[Rogneta]

I wish you posted the photo of whole blanket in action! I just looove colors and stitches are perfect. I would have a blanket like this with a great pleasure Great job!

[Bella84]

All I can say is WOW!!! The hexagons are so incredibly pretty - they look like mandalas Awesome work!