Knitting a Hexpuff Quilt

This was such a fun and involved project. Last spring, with a new baseball season upon us, I asked my paint club friends what kind of a project I might be able to do in the ballpark while watching a whole bunch of baseball games. They delivered! My friend Stephanie suggested knitting this awesome puff quilt by tiny owl knits. It’s perfect for the ballpark, because it’s knit just one little hexagon puff at a time (so portable!), and they’re all joined together in the end to make a quilt. I made this as a surprise gift for my friend and her new baby. It’s good it was a surprise, because otherwise she would’ve been waiting for it for quite some time; it took over half a year to complete! Come along on the journey below.

Back at the birth of the project, when I started by picking out yarn colors for the pattern that Stephanie found for me! Other paint club friends were actually painting.

Yarn has arrived! Yarn is often sold in twisted skeins like the ones you see on the bottom, but those will tangle if you try to knit from them, so you have to wind them into usable cakes first. I didn’t own a spinning device, so I turned to my local “Buy Nothing” group and a very kind woman let me come over to wind a bunch of my skeins!

Then she sent me home with this nice wooden yarn swift, which couldn’t be tightened. But I just added a rubber band, and a plastic winder, and it works great! Now I can wind my own skeins!

Here are the first of my hexipuffs! Such cute little hexagons, knit in the round like little pillows. After knitting, I block each one by wetting it and pinning it to these boards so that they can all keep the same shape and size.

Stuffing a puff at the ballgame!

With friends at the games!

I got some cute fingerless gloves for knitting at the cold night games in San Francisco too.

 

A summer trip. camping at Lake Tahoe– still knitting! With my new “Truckee is my happy place” bag.

Taking my ballpark knitting to a new stadium! The Padres’ park in San Diego. And the beaches of Coronado.

Back in San Francisco for more games, and some half-puffs that complete some of the ends.

On a train between Chicago and Milwaukee for baseball, and then heading to the TAF summer camp, where I found a very nice assistant to help me stuff my puffs!

Little E was at camp with her dad who’s on the board, but she was too young to actually be a part of the camp programs, so she was just stuck hanging out in the room full of grown-ups who were working remote during the day, haha. So much creativity though! She helped stuff my puffs and then started a whole cafe (this is her menu) that served these vanilla, blueberry, and strawberry “pancakes”.

Flying back from the midwest! And back at the Giants games.

Evidence of the knitter behind all these quilts.

Knitting even while sitting right behind home plate – on camera! Look for me right above where it says @SFGIANTS.

Flying to another baseball tour in September. And back to our ballpark with our stunning sunsets.

Camping in Marin. And — two baskets full of puffs!

Six months after I began, I finally completed all 108 puffs to make a small baby quilt! I finished the last one at our poolside paint club meeting. Fitting to end where I started. But then it was time to join them all together.

Two rows! Three rows!

The puffs flashed briefly on the big screen, since the couple in front of me ended up on the Kiss Cam.

Oh no, I crocheted so hard, the hook snapped in half. I got a metal one to replace it, haha.

Knitting on our road trip down to Monterey.

And reunited with my puff stuffers down in SoCal!

 

Finally, the whole thing was complete! Such a cute little baby quilt, with so many fun hours of love embedded in those cotton fibers. Packed up and ready to go to Germany!

And here are our beloved recipients, enjoying the quilt.

 

Such a fun project! Thank you to Stephanie for the idea, tiny owl knits for the pattern, Alex and everyone else who tolerated my hours of knitting in their presence, and everyone who contributed their encouragement and good vibes into this project!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco but often traveling and working around the world. She creates beautiful, soft, and timeless imagery while capturing the most fleeting of moments. View her work at annawu.com, follow her daily adventures on instagram, or contact her to book your own session today.