Giveaway and What was I thinking

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Above is the finished product! The Peacock Throw, my contribution in Robyn Chachula's new book, Unexpected Afghans. And before I give you the details on the Digital GIVEAWAY, you have to listen to the 'what was I thinking' part. (giggle)

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You know I love hexagons. And I love complicated over and under stitching. And while I was so happy with the hexagon, for THIS book, with all these great designers, I knew that I'd have to push the design to a new level. Placing the hexagons point to point (instead of traditional side to side) was just the creative push I needed to make the blanket go from "wow" to "Holy Cow!" The point to point placement then caused a negative space that needed to be filled.  Above is a sketch of how I attempted to stitch a diamond "fill-in" motif, placing taller stitches at the points.

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Like most writers, sometimes I struggle with getting just the right words. Luckily, as a crochet designer, I can use visual aids and photos to describe what I'm doing. This photo is used not only for my own clarification and notes, but if need be, I could use it to help the tech editor and answer consumer questions.

Here in this detail photo, you can see that the rows of hexagons are matched at a side, but the next below row, should be staggered like bricks to fit in the spaces. This is where I turned the hexagon on it's head, and made an unexpected change by letting them touch points leaving the space for the diamonds. Here's the link to the project page on Ravelry in case you feel like putting it in your favorites ;)

If you are daunted by sewing in all those diamonds, configure the hexagons in the traditional way and leave the diamonds out.  Either way, I'd love to see your photos on Ravelry. But, if you are going to make the project, you'll need the pattern....(and all the other patterns by great designers: Doris Chan, Kristin Omdahl, Marly Bird, Linda Permann, Jill Wright, Edie Eckman, Tammy Hildebrand, Kimberly McAlindin and of course, Robyn Chachula).

To win your digital copy, leave a comment on THIS post by 11:59 pm July 4.  In your post, leave your FIRST NAME, Last Initial, CITY/Province, AND whether or not you like to be challenged beyond your comfort zone with crochet or if you prefer to move quickly to autopilot with a comfortable project.  A winner will be randomly chosen from among the complete entries. You may enter only once. The winner to be announced July 5 or 6.   The winner will need to email me at Ellen @ GoCrochet dot com  by July 10 to claim your digital copy of the book.

Want to see more from this book?  Check out all the designers blogs this weekend. You might want to start with Robyn's blog, Crochet by Faye, to get the complete itinerary and map to many more opportunities to WIN.