It has taken A LOT of maths to marry Mary’s Memory and the Ubuntu Border from last year’s Scheepjes CAL!  I have to say that I love the result :)  Although my journey with this motif will stop here for now (probably as a little rectangular cushion – more about that another day), there is no reason why your journey can’t continue.  At the bottom of this post, you will find some tools to help you keep growing your motif.

For finished size and yardages, please see the Information post HERE.

Growing Your Mary With the Ubuntu Border

© Dedri Uys 2019.  All Rights Reserved.

• Information
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Hashtags:  Please use #marylovesubuntu if you share photos of this part.  If you continue the design-your-own journey after that, please use #crochetmaryloves so that people can find your design easily.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
– Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

Instructions

Please see Colours Per Round below for the colours I chose to use.

If you would like to continue growing your motif, you can do so by following the Border Rounds for Ubuntu, starting at Border Round 2:

• Border Round 2 (see instructions below)
• Week 8:  Border Part 2 – Border Rounds 3 – 8 {Instructions*/Photographic help}
• Week 9: Border Part 3 – Border Rounds 9 – 13 {Instructions*/Photographic help}
• Week 10:  Border Part 4 – Border Rounds 14 – 18 {Instructions*/Photographic help}
• Week 11:  Border Part 5 – Corner Flower Row 1 – Border Round 21 {Instructions*/Photographic help}
• Week 12:  Border Part 6 – Border Rounds 22 – 25 {Instructions*/Photographic help}

* The instructions on the Scheepjes website are in UK terms.  Please scroll down to the bottom of each post for the US Terminology PDFs.

Please note that Border Rounds 2, 8 and 9 of Ubuntu will need to be changed as follows:

Border Round 2 {Ubuntu}

Sl st in the next st and in the ch-2 corner sp.  Ch 3 (counts as hdc + ch-1 sp), hdc in the same sp.  This is your first corner made.

*BPhdc in each of the 36 sts across.  (Hdc, ch 1, hdc) in the ch-2 corner sp.*  Repeat from * to * 5 more times, omitting the last corner on the last repeat.  Join to the second ch of the beg ch-3 with a sl st.

Stitch Count Per Side:  38 sts – 2 hdc and 36 BPhdc (not including ch-1 corner sps)

Border Round 8 {Ubuntu}

Sl st into the next ch-1 corner sp.  Ch 3 (counts as hdc + ch-1 sp), hdc in the same sp.  This is your first corner made.

*Skip the first (hidden) st.  Hdc in each of the rem 45 sts.  (Hdc, ch 1, hdc) in the next ch-1 corner sp.*  Repeat from * to * 5 more times, omitting the last corner on the last repeat.  Join to the second ch of the beg ch-3 with a sl st.  Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count Per Side:  47 hdc – not including ch-1 corner sps

Border Round 9 {Ubuntu}

Skip this entire round!  At the end of Border Round 8, you will have a multiple of 12 + 11 sts, which is what you will need to start Border Round 10 of Ubuntu.

Once you have made all 25 Border Rounds, you can either fasten off and use this hexagon as the front of a cushion cover OR you can continue growing it yourself.  Under Growing Some More below, I will give you a few mathematical tips and stitch inspiration.

Colours Per Round

Growing Some More/Design Your Own

Option 1:  Wing it!

Go totally off-piste and use whichever stitch combinations make your heart sing.  It is worth noting that there are some mathematical rules which need to be followed in order to prevent the hexagon from twisting and/or becoming ruffled.  Here are some of them:

• If you make a single crochet round, your corners will be (sc, ch 1, sc).  If you make too many sc rounds in succession, though, your corners will become ruffled and pointy because you are not adding enough height for the stitch count increases.  Try adding in a dc round every now and then to add more height, making (dc, ch 1, dc) in the corners.
• If you make half-double crochet rounds, your corners will be (hdc, ch 1, hdc).  As with sc rounds, making too many in succession might also cause your corners to become ruffled and pointy.  Apply the same fix as above.
• If you are making double crochet rounds, your corners will be (dc, ch 1, dc), with an occasional exception of using (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) and skipping the first (hidden) st.  This will prevent the inevitable twist that happens when you are always working with the right side facing you.  It will also prevent your work from being too tight (causing the centre to bulge).

I suggest using a mix of the stitch heights above to maintain a flat, even, twist-free design.  It is a good idea to lay your work down flat every two or three rounds, smoothing it out to check for bulging/ruffling.

Option 2:  A Bit of a Framework

I quite like the idea of adding the Ubuntu Border again, after a little bit of a calm frame.  If this is something that appeals to you, you will need to ‘design’ filler rounds to get you to a stitch count where the Border will work out again.  I suggest using dc height stitches as the base for your filler rounds, and as such recommend 7 filler rounds (see table below).  This does not mean that your stitches all have to be dc.  It just means that you should aim to use patterns/combinations that give you roughly the same height.  Please see Inspiration below.  You are, of course, welcome to refer to Option 1 and do your own thing!

For the purpose of this ‘tutorial’, I am going to assume that you are using 7 filler rounds.

Once you have designed these rounds, they can be alternated with the Border indefinitely:

• Mary’s Memory Part 1
• Mary’s Memory Part 2
• Mary’s Memory Part 3
• Border Rounds 2 – 25 {75 sts per side at end}
• *Filler Rounds {multiples of 60 + 32 sts per side at end}
• Mary’s Memory Round 22 {multiples of 60 + 36 sts per side}
• Border Rounds 2 – 25 {multiples of 60 + 15 sts per side at end}*
• Repeat from * to * until your blanket is as big as you want it to be

Filler Rounds

If you’ve had a quick read of the maths rules in Option 1, you will know that there are some things to keep in mind, mainly bulging/ruffling and twisting.  The rough guides below should help you to prevent those.

Inspiration

• Cable Stitch
• The butterflies from the Butterfly Garden Square by Chris Simons
• The little flowers created in Rounds 8 – 12 of Spring Garden Hexie by In The Yarn Garden

Collaboration

I would love it if you design and share your own ‘Filler Rounds’ so that other people can benefit from it.

Things that would make this easier:

• Note that the last supplied round has 75 sts (or a multiple of 60 + 15) per side, not including corner sps.  Please make sure that Filler Round 1 only needs 75 sts (or a multiple of 60 + 15) to work out.
• The last Filler Round should have 92 (or a multiple of 60 + 32 stitches) per side at the end, not including corner sps.
• It doesn’t matter how many rounds you end up using to get to the correct stitch count above, as long as your work lies flat at this point.
• Wherever possible, include links to tutorials that will help make it easier for people to follow the stitches you choose to use.

I really encourage you to try your hand at designing and am happy to help you figure out the tricky bits if you get stuck.

Sharing your Filler Rounds

The easiest way to share your Filler Rounds is by adding them to your Ravelry project’s notes, to Instagram, or to your website.  If you provide me with a link, I will add it here for others to find.  Alternatively, you can contact me using the ‘Contact Me’ tab at the top of this website so that we can talk about how best to help you share your work.

For naming convention, may I suggest naming your Filler Rounds “Mary Loves (whichever name you choose)” so that people will be able to find your additions by Googling Mary Loves…  This is also a good way to share your story and the story of the person whose name you choose :)

It is my hope that we will build up a collective library of Filler Rounds and Extensions that can be interchanged to create many unique blankets.  Why?  Because every person’s story is unique and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate that.

Option 3:  Just Tell Me What To Do

If you don’t want to wing it and you don’t want to join the Filler Round challenge, there are two things you can do to grow your Mary’s Memory.

• Around the Bases by ChiChi Allen – You can adapt this pattern to fit a hexagon by using the rules under Option 1 above to alter the corners.

• Summer Stitch-along by The Crochet Crowd – If that is still too much calculating for you, Mikey from The Crochet Crowd is hosting a hexagonal stitch-along, starting 8 July 2019.  You will be able to grow Mary’s Memory with the latter part of that pattern when it becomes available.  I will add more suggestions about that as soon as the stitch-along catches up to our final stitch count.

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