Insanity or Commitment?

Over a year has passed since I began working on the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern.  I made my very first hexipuff in March of 2013.  My initial goal was to just knit like crazy, and hopefully finish a quilt in a year.  I laugh at that thought now after finishing 100 hexipuffs this very morning!

For those of you asking "What is a hexipuff?" here is a picture of one.  A hexipuff is a knitted hexagon that you can stuff or leave unstuffed.  I stuff mine with 100% bamboo fill.  

Hexipuff knit with leftover Madeline Tosh yarn

Let's put this into prospective.  I have a blanket that is 50" x 70".  I layer the blanket out on the floor and placed my 100 colorful, squishy, cute hexipuffs on that blanket to see how far I have come in making a quilt.  This is what I have so far...

A quilt, I have not.  A good start, yes, but if I wanted to make a 50" by 70" quilt with my hexiupffs, I'm probably looking at knitting 800 more!  Maybe not that many, but that's how it feels!  

All lined up

I wouldn't have made it to 100 hexipuffs if it hadn't been for a friend of mine on Ravelry challenging me this week.  We wanted to see if we could make it to 100 in one week.  Both of us completed the challenge, and both of us realized how far we have to go to make something with our hexipuffs.  I'm beginning to understand why many people end up making pillows or smaller projects with hexipuffs rather than quilts.  

Gifted sock yarn turned into a colorful hexipuff

I'm so grateful to my friends and even complete strangers who have sent me their leftover sock yarn for my hexipuffs.  So many colors!  Everything from hand dyed to handspun.  

BFL sock yarn hand dyed by my friend, Beth, using Kool Aid

Being this far into the project, I'm definitely going to keep going.  800 hexipuffs, probably not, but we'll see where I am in another year.  Knitting these puffs may seem like insanity to other knitters, but to me, they are little finished objects.  When I'm getting tired of working on something bigger, I know I can pick up my hexipuff materials and make one in 40 min or less and have another hexipuff for my quilt.  They are easy to carry along with me when I'm on the go, and I can knit them from memory when I'm tired at the end of the day.  If I get bored of them, I can put them aside, work on other projects, and come back to them without having to remember where I was in a pattern or what row I finished with.  I just start a new one and finish it, so easy!  Someday, I'll have enough hexipuffs to make something bigger.  Then the task of sewing them all together will be at my finger tips, and I'll probably call "insanity" at that point.  :)  Until then, I'm committed and will keep buzzing away making hexipuffs.