I’m infected with a dangerous virus.
If you don’t immediately recognise this, you are possibly not a knitter. Definitely not on Ravelry, or not that much. This – it will eventually become the Beekeeper’s Quilt, by Stephanie Dosen/Tiny Owl Knits – is the latest viral knit; and it’s unusual in two respects: one, it’s not free;* and two, I’m on board. I tend to avoid viral knits (out of stubbornness, largely, but also because the things I look for in a knitting project tend to be less likely to drive a viral infection: for instance wildly popular patterns are usually distinctive, but simple, whereas I like complexity).
In fact I wasn’t planning on making this. I saw it, I passed over it without really noticing. Nothing wrong with it, but not particularly up my alley. And I already had a sock yarn sampler blanket in progress. But then, I went to a yarn swap party, and Stephanie was there with a sample quilt, and Elfling made a beeline for it (sorry) and gasped “oooh! pretty!“, and I still wasn’t planning on making it, but then Stephanie traded me the pattern for some yarn I was offering to give her for free anyway, so then (back home) I had the pattern download, and I opened it, and again the “ooh! pretty!“, and… well…
I am powerless to resist.
Turns out, though, there’s an unexpected bonus to hexipuffing:** I’m actually making progress on my other sock scrap blanket, too.
See, I was stalled on this one because I had biggish balls of remnants, but my concept called for smallish patches of colour, and I couldn’t figure out how to decide when to stop knitting on a particular strip, so… stalled. But! Hexipuff away most of my yarn, leave a bit for strips… perfect. Progress. Two blankets at once! Fun.
PS – If anyone else is puffing and fancies some scraps, I’ve got some going free. (Ravelry link. But you could leave a comment if you’d like me to email you what’s available.)
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* There are of course other paid-for patterns that sweep through the knitosphere… but by and large, anything that makes this big a splash, this quickly, is a freebie. Like Clapotis.
** It’s not a proper viral if it doesn’t come with its own slang or acronym.
Woolly thoughts (and fuzzy logic) 
Hexipuffing is my first viral knit (well if you ignore the jaywalker disaster of 2008 – and as we don’t speak of it, it never happened). I’d love some scraps to use in my puffing – it’s like puffing other people – errrr does that sound bad ; ) – Samantha (Dalesgirl)
Hi Samantha! Would be delighted to send you some scraps. What colours are you after? And what’s your address?
Aww, I’ve caught the virus badly….oh and I’ve also been struck down with the Lily virus! Love your blanket strips, they look like they’re going to turn into a cosy blanket!
I so want to Hexipuff, but I felt I couldn’t because I have a masterplan for sewing up all my tension squares (I use the term ‘square’ loosely) into a blanket…but having come across your two blankets on the go, why not indeed… 🙂