Episode 100: The Great Shinybees Hexipuff Amnesty

Intro

Here we are folks and who’d have thunk it: A tonne! From my South African garage to my Wigan spare bedroom – with a couple of amazing awards in between – over the course of 4 years.  A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for all the support.

A couple of shout outs today:

GiffnockGirl – loving the pokeballs after our pattern pick last time. Though I am lamenting the lack of Pikachu man bun covers. I can only assume you are all out seeking perfect models for them and I can expect those photos shortly.

Chelociraptor – I always enjoy some fun crochet patterns and burgers are no different.

Trip Down Memory Lane

Hitting the big century milestone has got me doing some reminiscing. I’ve decided to bring your attention to some of my favourite episodes from the back catalogue.

Episode 4 – purely for the Malva pudding if I’m honest.

Episode 34 – It’s the Kate Davies interview. I clearly love her (who doesn’t?) but mostly I love interviewing people you don’t always hear from, cos I’m nosey like that.

Episode 95 – Continuing in the ‘people you don’t hear from’ vein this is an exclusive with Countess Ablaze, although it is recent it is well worth revisiting and a must listen for anyone new.

I’ve been thinking about The Sock Surgery too and how it was the catalyst for the weekly schedule. Had a great time with the wonderful Clare Devine of KnitShareLove (previously Yarn and Pointy Sticks).

Some other highlights have been the collaborations with Louise at KnitBritish for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, particularly the podcast lounge.

Perhaps the biggest thank you of all should go to Martine Ellis since it was her that bantered me into starting this whole thing in the first place.

Schedule Break

Some news to potentially make you sad, but with a cheeky bit of enabling thrown in, naturally. Given that I am selling my house – have I mentioned that?- and there are various other goings-on at Casa Shiny I am unable to commit to a weekly schedule at the moment. I will be taking a break, mostly likely for a month or so, and when I re-attack it is quite likely that I will aim for a series type podcast as recommended by the podcasting guru that is Colin Gray. The past few episodes have been well received and I definitely feel like I produce my best work when I’ve had some time to chill in between.

A Humorous Aside

So Northern fellas, God love ’em, generally fit into a few well defined categories. We have the pale and greasy with jogging bottoms and bobble hats. We have the Two-Step massive with tight V-necks, huge muscles and tans and tatts. We have the old school Indie kids with their Britpop hairstyles. We have the alternatives all gothy and sullen.

What we do not have are Hollywood hunks – the grey, damp lighting of the North doesn’t make anyone look good. Cue my utter surprise the when a mini 20-something Paul Rudd should appear at my door with his fit-for-his-age Dad. I was not ready. I went into a bit of a spin but recovered with some banter and didn’t come across all Mrs Jones. It did get me thinking about the actual Paul Rudd though, a beautiful famous actor for those poor uninitiated among you, and lo-and-behold he only bloody knits!

 

Gratuitous Knitty Porn AKA Paul Rudd Knitting

Gratuitous Knitty Porn AKA Paul Rudd Knitting

#HexipuffAmnesty / #SodHexipuffs

I had lots of good suggestions for how to celebrate this historic 100th episode but one stood out and credit for it must go to Countess Ablaze. She does a lot of charity work and last year some of the money from her parties went to Mustard Tree Manchester to help tackle homelessness in the city. It is a problem that is getting more widespread and needs addressing. Related to this I came across a charity called The Monthly Gift MCR. They provide sanitary products to homeless women. I wanted to help somehow and so we put our heads together and The Countess came up with this dastardly little plan: A Hexipuff Amnesty.

For those who don’t know there was a trend, especially around 2011/2012 for Hexipuffs. A Hexipuff is a small hexagonal piece of knitting that is made up of your scraps of sock yarn. It was started by a pattern called Beekeepers Quilt from Tiny Owl Knits and the idea is that when you have enough Hexipuffs you sew them together to make a blanket. It was a Marmite pattern and I came down on the side of the haters and coined #SodHexipuffs. I’m more of a miniature sock knitter, myself.

Lots of people with noble intentions ended up with baskets full of 20-30 Hexipuffs but that isn’t even enough for a cat blanket. They just pointlessly sit there in their baskets gathering dust.

copyright tiny owl knits

copyright tiny owl knits

Having said all that, I’m gonna knit a Hexipuff, and unite mine with all of yours. Pop your Hexipuffs in an envelope and send them to 101 Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester M27 4AA and the Countess will store them all until later in the year when we will get together and turn them all into blankets. We will then raffle the blankets and the proceeds will go to Monthly Gift MCR.

For every 100 Hexipuffs received I will knit a further one, so please do send in your forgotten and unloved Hexipuffs, or even knit a few especially, and lets do something wonderful together and use this 100 episodes to make a difference. You can use the #HexipuffAmnesty or #SodHexipuffs to spread the word. Guess which one I’ll be going for…

Wrap Up

That’s all from me this week. As always, thank you for listening. Feedback is always appreciated, and you can email me or message me via Ravelry or social media. If you enjoyed listening today, please consider leaving an iTunes review, to help others find the podcast too. Happy crafting!

 

3 comments on “Episode 100: The Great Shinybees Hexipuff Amnesty

  1. Rosie says:

    Don’t know how I’m only just discovering your podcast, but thanks for making me laugh out loud 🙂

    1. Shinybees says:

      Thank you! Glad you enjoy it 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.