I am still having problems with my joints, which has limited the amount of craft I can cope with – my knees complain if I spin for too long and my hands don’t cope with knitting needles very well. I have fallen back on crochet and found I can manage that, especially as I treated myself to a new Clover hook which is shorter and chunkier to hold than my normal metal hooks.
Whilst in shopping mode, I also made the mistake of visiting the Kemps website and a few bargains just sort of fell into my basket… I am using Twilley’s Freedom Gorgeous DK yarn, which is a bamboo/nylon mix to crochet hexagons to make a blanket, which gives me some sense of achievement as each finished hexagon feels like I have completed something! At first I thought it would be a disaster because it is a four ply yarn and looked as if it would be rather splitty, but it didn’t turn out to be that much of a problem.
I am using Attic24’s idea of joining the hexagons as you crochet the last round so there is no sewing up at the end (although there are still plenty of ends to tidy up). I have almost half the yarn so far, so should end up with enough of a blanket to keep away the chilblains next winter (or this summer, given the current weather)! It’s a colourful creation:
Next time, I’d buy a couple more colours – I have six and could really do with at least seven so I could have a central hexagon and six all round it all with different edge colours. (Yes, I am a control freak, I could not cope if I ended up with two the same colour touching!)
Spinstar Creations 
lovely colours in your hexagons…I wouldn’t use anything other than those clover hooks now and have gradually collected the whole set of them. My left thumb and right little finger both have joint problems but i will not give up my knitting in a hurry. My Aunty suggest i rub in lavender oil, it worked a treat but the pain is coming back a few days later…:(
Thanks Marianne! It’s amazing the difference a change in hook makes. I keep hoping that one day very soon the doctors will finally decide what is wrong with me and then I can get some treatment, at the moment it’s a mix of painkillers and not doing anything that upsets my body.
I will go and investigate oils, I don’t enjoy the smell of lavender but I am sure there are others out there.
you could mix the lavender with something like rosemary or my favourite neroli, but then it would need to be in a carrier oil. Lavender is the only oil that can be used neat. My thumb is painful again, maybe I need to visit the doctor 😦
I love these colours. I have been trying to learn how to crochet for years as I am a knitter and a spinner. But it took moving to Egypt and lots of free time to learn it. I don’t know what I was afraid of!!! Although I still cannot hold the wool in my left hand. I still crochet like I am knitting!!!! But it works! I bought myself a sheep too so I could spin my own wool here but it is short and coarse and only good for weaving! But at least it is something. Trying to find non-Chinese yarn is a challenge too!!!
The lengths yarn-lovers will go to to keep crafting!! I must be the mirror image of you – I always hold the wool in my left hand and people always look very confused when they watch me knit, I think I knit like I crochet so it is sort of continental-style.
Oh how interesting!!! I am trying to imagine how you do that…My Danish step-mother used to knit like that. She tried to teach me once…but… Dyslexia rules. KO? Turns my head inside out!!! I gave up and just did what felt comfortable. I think we all end up doing that! I was taught to knit by nuns in the sixties so I think it is just ingrained!! Its hard to change ancient habits!!!
Love your hexagons! Almost enough to make me give crotchet another try. I have an ANCIENT hexagon blanket that belonged to my grandmother that is made with some nameless acrylic and is tough as nails. Hmmnnn…maybe it’s time to take a look at my yarn stash and think about making a new blanket from something softer! And thanks for linking to the join-as-you-go constructions. I’d probably be homicidal if I had to sew all those hexagons together.
P.S. I’m suffering from spinner’s ankle myself this morning so I totally get the need to find something else do for a while that doesn’t hurt.
I have several blankets made by various elderly relatives that are indestructible, there must be something in the yarn that was available back then!! Hope your ankle recovers soon.
I just finished my hexagon afghan… I love your colors! As far as joints, I have terrible problems… I even had to figure out an alternative way to hold the yarn in my left hand while I crochet because my original way of holding the yarn in my little finger would render my finger paralyzed… It would be painful just to try and open it back up. But I started taking Glucosamine/Condroitin/MSM; a combination of all three that I get from Puritan’s Pride online. Stuff I got at the drug store didn’t work, but this brand does. It makes all the difference! I’ll have to try lavendar oil as well.