Lupercalia Blossoms Hexagon

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and we’re getting ready to sow the seeds for spring. As such, I thought it would be a wonderful start for a new project. Enter the Lupercalia Blossom Hexagon.

Valentine’s Day comes from the Roman pagan holiday Lupercalia, which was a fertility festival. It spread throughout the empire and involved animal sacrifice, getting drunk off wine, and coupling up. Lots of coupling up. When the Roman Empire was Christianized, instead of banning holidays like Lupercalia, it changed the holiday to St. Valentine’s Day to celebrate a saint that was executed by the Romans on February 14.

From there, it became the holiday we know and love (and sometimes hate) today: complete with flowers, greeting cards, and presents.

This project can be a great small gift for a special someone (as you can see, my familiar Ohana is slowly appreciating her new gift, as she plants her body on my photography setup, where I’m taking photos for a new book – announcement soon), or it can be the beginning of something big. You can use this hexagon as a coaster set (make 4), or a small wallet (make 2 and sew together), or you can make a bunch and create a blanket, or make about 18-24 and make a pillow cover (for extra flair, join each point on the outside together with a bunch of strands of yarn to make tassels or pom-poms)

You will Need:

1 skein of purple worsted weight yarn (A)

1 skein of pink WW yarn (B)

Size H (8 mm) hook

Note: you will not close off each round, as this pattern

With A, Ch 3, sl st to join to create a loop.

Rnd 1: sc 6 in loop.

Rnd 2 (RS): 2sc in each st below (12)

Rnd 3: 2sc, sc alternating around (18)

Rnd 4: 2sc, sc 2 in next 2 sc around (24)

Rnd 5: 2sc, sc 3 in next 3 sc around (30)

Rnd 6: 2sc, sc 4 in next 4 sc around (36)

Rnd 7: 2sc, sc 5 in next 5 sc around (42)

Rnd 8: 2sc, sc 6 in next 6 sc around (48)

Rnd 9: Join B. *With A, 2sc in next 2sc sp around A, sc, switch to B, sk 1, 2sc in sp below, switch to A, sc, switch to B, sk 1, 2sc in sp below, switch to A, sc, repeat from * 5 more times (54)

Rnd 10: 2sc, sc 8 in next 8 sp around (60)

Rnd 11: Ch 3 (counts as dc), dc in same sp, *sk 2, V stitch (dc, ch 1, dc) in next sp, sk 2, V st, sk 3, 2-1-2 shell (2dc, ch 1, 2dc in same sp) in next 2sc sp. Repeat from * until the last 3 sp. 2dc in same sp as ch 3, ch 1, BO and weave in ends (or, if you are turning these squares into a blanket, leave a long tail if desired to dew to other hexagons).

Optional (and the topic of next week’s blog): You can use a needle and spare yarn to create an inscription in the middle of your hexagon.