Babette Blanket

Phew. It's finished.

I started with 1800 gm of superwash sockyarn in 17 colours. A few weeks, a lot of hooking, sewing and (let's be honest LOTS AND LOTS of) swearing later I am left with 290 gm of yarn and a blanket that I expect will keep me warm and comfy whatever else may be going on around me.

I did a lot of whinging during this project. Stitching up the 272 squares seemed like a never ending task. But eventually it did end and I began the border. I couldn't decide on a border and changed my mind a couple of times before deciding to finish the blanket off with a single round of each colour (well, most colours, I didn't have enough brown, dark green or gold/yellow). The extra wide border helped use up more of the yarn (I wanted to minimise the leftovers) and added some much needed width to the blanket.

I finished the last round on Tuesday night and did a little happy Babette Blanket dance when I wove in the last end.

Turns out that the happy dance was a bit premature.

Friday I decided to block the blanket (why? why? it didn't really need it). I soaked it in the usual manner, squished out as much water as I could which wasn't very much. Considering this dripping mass I had a great idea (moron). As it is superwash yarn I decided a few minutes in the washing machine gentle spin couldn't hurt (why? why?) and so I tossed it in.

A few minutes later I pulled out the blanket to find that the centre of about a quarter of the 272 blocks had - well - errr - self destructed. I should have taken a photo for you all to gape at in horror - because it was horrific - but I confess sharing my disaster was the last thing on my mind at that point.

I was gutted. Of course it was entirely my fault -- these squares start differently than the granny square technique I've used in the past -- and it is obviously far less forgiving of a slapdash finish when weaving in ends.

I cursed and considered trashing the whole thing.

But of course I didn't. I sat at my kitchen table, with a very damp blanket on my lap and began the long process of fixing the squares. The good news is that crochet doesn't unravel from the starting end, so things didn't get worse.....

I worked off and on repairing the blanket and in all it took over 9 hours to get it back to the finished state. As the state of the blanket improved, so did my mood and yesterday I did manage to get a photo of the last damaged square for historical purposes.

The finished blanket is 54 inches x 90 inches -- a good size for a single bed (it's on a double bed in this photo) and perfect for curling up on the sofa. It's almost 3 times the size of the Babette Blanket pattern as written (43x40 inches).

The finished weight of the blanket is 1500 gm.

I used mostly Indigo Moon Vancouver series superwash fingering weight yarn, in a rainbow of 15 colours. I supplemented that with 2 colours from Dream in Colour Smooshy sock yarn. All from Socktopus which has an amazing selection of really special sock yarn (including my favourite Duet Sock Yarn!).

The blanket is exactly what I set out to make.

It's not elegant, it's not sophisticated, but it makes me smile. When I wrap it around myself I feel warm and cosy.

It's sort of a hug in supewash!

Decisions, Decisions....

I'm facing a few yarn-y type decisions at the moment. I could pretend that I was about to embark on some sort of democratic process where I'd ask for your votes and then go with the majority. But anyone who knows me knows I'm a control freak with an ornery nature and so that's not going happen. (But suggestions are always welcome --eventually I'll come back to them and realise you were right all along.)

First decision is what to do with this amazing handspun (handspun!) (eeeee) merino yarn, spun by LittleBerry and happily rehomed with me. I love it. LittleBerry has no idea how excited I was when this arrived. I've never had handspun yarn before. And for the past year every time I've seen someone's handspun yarn with the multiple mult-coloured plies twisted together I've felt a pang of envy.

And now I've got some! Yipppppeeeee!!!

This deserves a special project - and until I find the right pattern I'll just admire it.

My second decision is what my next big knitting project should be. I've been amazed and inspired and impressed (as always) by things appearing in blogland lately. Two projects in particular have made me want to tackle something meaty. Tinker has this amazing shawl from a Niebling curtain pattern. Fleegle has this amazing afghan from a German (I think) magazine.

To further inspire myself I've got some new books in, and there are some beautiful projects in them.

However, for the last couple of days for no reason that I can really make sense of I've been thinking of knitting a .... Christening gown. To be clear, neither I or anyone I know is pregnant or expecting to be pregnant any time soon. My nieces and nephew ARE FAR TOO YOUNG TO BE STARTING FAMILIES AND SHOULD BE ENJOYING HIGH SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY SO DON'T THINK THIS IS SOME SORT OF WEIRD HINT. (Apologies for the lecture to all of you who aren't one of my nieces or newphew or a teenager.)

Anyway - a Christening gown seems to have made its way on to my 'to do' list and may be the next thing I cast on.

Or it may not.

My last decision is what to do with this Noro Silk Garden. I ordered this yarn over a month ago with a specific pattern in mind -- but since then I've been dithering. (Really? Me? Dither?) I have occasional lapses of creativity and think I should design something myself. And then I change my mind and decide I should be making the pattern that inspired me to order the yarn. If you check this blog in a year I expect I'll still be dithering.

Babette Watch
For those of you wondering about my crochet progress (and to annoy teenage boys hoping to find something a little more interesting than a knitting blog when googling 'Babette Watch') I finish with this small update.

The squares presented here my bloggy friends are not just any Babetter squares. No, not at all. These squares are the LAST SQUARES of the Babette Blanket.

WooHoo!

I'll block them and over the weekend I'll stitch together the final panel and begin the mega border. The end is in sight.

WooHoo!

Sew Boring....

I know it's bad form to be whinging again already but I am bored as a very bored thing with stitching together the 126 (ish) squares that I've crocheted so far for the Babette Blanket. (small sample pictured here)

I finished making the squares on Monday and since then I've been blocking and stitching the squares.... and I've got about 36 to do before I'm done....

T.D.Us.

And worse still I know that I have to do it all again! The pattern as written creates a 40 x 43 inch throw and I want something more substantial -- so when I've (finally) finished sewing these squares together it is back to the hook for the second half.

For the second half I have decided the Babette will be a secondary project to be worked while watching tv. I will also try to block and sew the squares together as I go along because I don't think I could face another 3 - 4 day sewing session.

I have a love/hate thing with the blanket so far. Sometimes the quirky colours amuse me and other times I think it's an uncoordinated mass of garish colour. I think both are valid viewpoints!

A few of you asked what yarn I'm using. Well, 15 of the colours are Indigo Moon Vancouver Series sock yarn, and 2 of the colours are Dream in Colour Smooshy yarn. I really love both, the colours are fab (regardless of what you think of them combined, individually they sparkle) and the yarn is great to work with and oh so soft when washed. And conveniently, both are superwash so perfect for a blanket.

Limbo
Apart from the blanket I really need to find a pattern to get my teeth into. I've got another crochet project lined up but I'm waiting on the yarn for that. (Crochet projects are like buses, you wait forever for one and then....)

I've ordered a couple of lace shawl patterns that look interesting - but they haven't arrived yet.

I joined a 'Year of Lace' club from a yarn shop in Calgary -- but I just found out that isn't shipping until the END of March (rather than the beginning as I'd assumed). (You may well wonder why with my ever increasing glut of laceweight I'd feel the need to join a lace club.)(I think it's because the shop is in Calgary and I lived there briefly.)(And it is yarn.)

So, all of the babbling to say I'm feeling the need to be inspired. There are lots of projects I want to do - but none are singing to me right now. Oh well, I'll know the project when I find it.

Until then I'll be sewing.....

Hooked by the Hook

This week I've mostly been crocheting.

Way back when I discovered the world of fibre on the internet (last April) one of the patterns that caught my eye was the Babette Blanket from Interweave Crochet. (It's now available to buy as a single pattern.) I loved the burst of colour and it immediately reminded me of crocheting granny squares out of Phentex(!) when I was 11. (Now Phentex you will recall was the most artificial of all yarns and unpleasant to touch-- but it did come in every colour imagineable and I had a vast supply of leftovers due to my mother's Phentex slipper obsession.)

I got distracted by lace knitting but almost a year later it seems the right time to tackle the Babette.

I toyed with the idea of carefully selecting colours and creating a blanket in muted (or at least related) tones. But somehow - the idea of a blanket in haphazard rainbow colours kept calling me back.

The end result won't be an elegant throw casually thrown onto my sofa, I expect it will live in my blanket box most of the time. But I imagine that when I'm a little under the weather, or need a bit of cheering up it will be what I curl up with on the sofa.

Being me I couldn't face deciding what colours to use in each square so I (geek alert) created a little randomiser spreadsheet that mapped them out for me. Some of the squares are surprisingly pleasant combinations of odd colours - others - not so much! But I'm hoping the overall effect will work.

In Other Business
A few people have very kindly nominated me for a Make My Day award. The rules say that I now need to pass that award on to 10 others. After careful consideration I've decided that I'd like to pass the award on to the lovely people who comment on this blog. It amazes me that people take time out of their busy day to see what I'm up to -- and even more so when they add a few words on what they've read! So thanks -you all Make My Day!

And I've been tagged by a 3 or 4 people -- one requires me to divulge 5 facts, the others 7. And in doing so I am tagging all of you readers/commenters to do the same on your blog! (By the way - for really interesting 7 facts check out Fleegle's responses to this tag!)

Soo Facts
1. I come from a big family. 2 brothers, 2 sisters, 5 nieces, 1 nephew, 62 Aunts and Uncles (31 by blood, 31 by marriage), and 65-75 first cousins. I should know how many cousins I have but I can never really remember how many kids my mom's oldest brother had (I never really knew him).

2. My father's mother (I called her Mamie) is my hero. She was very poor, married incredibly young and had 18 children. She was funny and feisty (you have to be I guess to keep all those children in line) and she had an amazing capacity to love. She died 19 years ago and I miss her still.

3. I love humous (and indeed hummus).

4. I make big decisions (moving country, changing jobs) quickly and based on gut feeling. However, ask me what I want for lunch and I can be paralysed for ages by the options.

5. I play the piano and sing. I do neither well but that doesn't stop me.

6. I can be sort of obsessive about things (bet that's a surprise to those of you who watched Lyra take over my life) and I can be very single minded. But oddly, I am also easily distracted. And once I'm distracted, whatever it is that I was obsessed with is forgotten and it's unlikely I'll ever get back to it.

7. I hate fruitcake.