Babette, coming together segement by segement

Meanwhile, frenetic Babette action has carried on. Have managed to drag myself away from crocheting to quickly update you.

So far I have discovered that while it seem like scaling new heights in pendantry, it is worthwhile blocking granny squares. This is especially the case for me as my tension has changed from the beginning squares, where it was quite loose, to the later squares where it has become firmer and much squarer.



Seaming by sections is the way to go, otherwise the task of assembling the squares according to the key would assume the scaling of decoding the Rosetta stone.


Finally, heres a shot of the dining room table. Yup - its chaos. But laying out the work in progress seems to be fuelling the crochet fires. You can also see crocheting necessities - dried cranberries, the spray gun, a talking book (An Accidental American), and some evidence of the Squeeze doing boy-craft - the gaffer tape and drill belong to him.

A post with no pics

I had an ultrasound last week and was intending to post an ultrasound photo of the Wriggler. However the Wriggler proved to be its father's child and turned its back on the camera. It truely is a child of mystery, we couldnt see anything other than the back of its head, its back and its bottom. However we could see one, tantilising thing. The Wriggler has hair! No, not Austen Powers style body hair, although this would be in keeping with its air of mystery. Whispy, fine baby hair on its head! I suspect in this, the poor baby will take after me. Ultra-fine, ultra-straight hair, the scourge of hairdressers the world over.

Quick Babette update

Oh Babette - I've beeen thinking about you when I wake up in the middle of the night (its much better to think about than work, which seems to be more demanding the closer my last day gets. Three weeks this week! Hurrah!). I've been crocheting in places I'm usually too inhibited to knit - doctors waiting rooms, the bus. Its such a treat watching the colours come together. Heres a little look at how she's coming along.


I'm thinking I'll contruct this segment by segment to avoid an enormous amount of blocking followed by an enormous amount of seaming. Anyone got any tips on sewing this one up?

New adventures in stash busting

I saw a heartwarming movie called Lars and the Real Girl a couple of days ago. It was hilarious and tender and unsentimental. Double thumbs up. Lars wears as a scarf a knitted baby blanket that his mother made him. It got me to thinking that I really would like to make something for The Wriggler that is likely to transcend babyhood and continue to be useful and evocative.

I've been eyeing off Babette's Blanket from Interweave Crochet for a while. At first I didnt know if I was struck by the beauty of the girl or the blanket. But the colours of the blanket have stayed with me, and a quick tour round the Flickr group and ravelry convinced me that this was something that would be an excellent stash buster as well as beautiful.


So I ransacked the stash. It started out looking like this:


And unpacked, ended up looking like this. Its a combination of Sundara sock yarn, Socks that Rock medium weight sock yarn, The Knittery sock yarn, and some others that I had. Oh, ok, so a little supplementation went on courtesy Champion Textiles. But only a little.



Will keep you posted!

When you're on a good thing....

stick to it! This week I've managed to whip out nearly two pairs of Evangalines for two very dear friends who live in the Blue Mountains.

Both sets of gloves are made from Noro Silk Garden, and while the colourways do tend to drown out the cable pattern, I think the gorgeous colour gradation makes up for this. The longer, pink 'n' purple gloves took just over one ball. I think if I cut back a couple of rows on the wrist band and finger band I wouldnt have needed the extra metre or so of yarn that went into the dark purple thumb band. The shorter greeny-mauvey-purplely gloves will take just under one ball. I used a stretchy long tail cast-on for both pairs, which also soaked up that little bit extra yarn.


Other things to love about Noro - the occasional burr left in the yarn even after processing, the scratchiness that even the silk doesnt temper, and Noro's signature - the big fat knot in the middle of the ball that introduces a completely new colour.

Dayflower done!

Overcame my fear of outrageous yarn bleeding and plunged the dayflower into a basin of tepid water with the merest hint of woolmix. While it did bleed a little, it was more a case of watery-blood-orange rather than abattoir-outrage. Heres a detail shot while it was drying.


And heres a shot of me modelling it.


Mods - well none really other than knitting until I ran out of yarn rather than the 20 or so recommended repeats. I used the recommended needles, Tilli Tomas Rockstar in American Beauty. Nothing like some shiny red silk and shiny red sequins!