I have finally finished the babette for my mom! I’m very excited to close out this chapter in my crocheting adventures and start a fresh one. The final border went on last night, so today I’ll be washing and drying it. Then I’ll take some pictures. Here is the final photo!

Finished Babette with Border

Babette 2

Yarn unraveling was one of the biggest issues I had with my first babette. To combat this problem, I decided to get these cute little yarn holders from Creative Couture:

The Yarn Holder holds up to three skeins neatly

I love that you can see everything, the zipper runs the entire length of the holder, and it has a cute handle!

Even Big Skeins will fit in the holder, which has strong plastic sides.

Babette #2 is coming along quite well. I have started on the centers, and the pattern for this blanket will be a traditional granny square. I have finished all the centers for the first two colors, and I’ll get to work on more this afternoon during the Slipstitches Yarnover this afternoon!
Progress So Far:
1 Row Middles – 26
2 Row Middles – 15
3 Row Middles – 5
4 Row Middles – 2

Monday night my husband brought home a great big afghan from his work, a giant granny square of an afghan. He plops it in my lap and says, “S wants to know if you can you fix this?”

Whoa. I’ve never “fixed” a torn piece of work before, so my first thought was “NO!” But, I laid it out on the floor, and thought about how it was made. I know I can crochet this pattern, so why couldn’t I fix it? Then the softness of the afghan hit my brain receptors. Oh, I did not want to give this blanket back. It was obviously older and well used to be that soft. I could tell someone who has crocheted for a long time made it because the stitches were very open and loose. And they were right handed.

It’s been a long time since I crocheted anything right handed, and I’m not particularly ambidextrous. But the hole wasn’t THAT big, and the pattern was very basic. I was just short on yarn. Luckily, the owner didn’t try to clip the unraveled yarn. Since I didn’t know what kind of yarn was used to make the blanket in the first place, I knew I could use that. So off I went, right-hand crocheting with a smaller hook and improvising a little to get from one side of the hole to the other.

Voila! No more hole. The patch is totally apparent to me and to you since I’m including a before and after photo, but when I laid the blanket out for my husband to see he couldn’t tell where the patch was. And I didn’t tell him.

He gave it back to his co-worker yesterday and she was thrilled! For payment I get to find out what kind of silky yarn that was… *bliss*

I’ve been sewing in my babette squares, working from the center out. Each panel is sewn together and then sewn onto the next (or previous) panel. Frankly, I’m shocked at the speed at which I’ve been able to complete this part of the blanket. I’ve only been sewing since yesterday, and I’ll be done tomorrow! I just have to sew Panels 9 and 10 together. Of course, these are the longest panels but the stitch I am using goes pretty quickly.

This is my first real sewing attempt, so I’m not even sure what kind of stitch I am doing. I saw a blog a while back that explained the different stitches and showed pictures of each. I will find that tomorrow and put a link up for you.

Almost done!!

8/22/2009 – Below are the babette photos, as well as a few other projects I’ve been working on. I have more photos on my flicker site as well as ravelry.

As we worked on the pattern, I noted a few additions to the directions that were needed. I am working on typing that up and will post that as soon as I can.

Babette Update
7/12 – I finished my second batch of blocking squares! So far, I have all of the 2-round squares and 35 of the 4-round squares completed and blocked. I have completely finished crocheting all of the 2- and 4- round squares. Yay! I’m really excited and I feel like I am getting a lot accomplished.

8/19 – I have finally finished crocheting all of my squares! I really love the color combination of the yarns I chose. I have blocked all of them and I’m ready to sew the panels together. I do a lot of my work in my spare time, so I decided to pin all the squares in a panel together. I can’t wait to see how it looks. Pictures to follow!!

I have finished blocking my first set of squares. This process has been incredibly interesting to me, mostly because I have never blocked before, but also because it achieved things I never expected.

Blocking Comparison (Top: Blocked Squares, Bottom: Their Unblocked Counterparts)

When I think about blocking, or when I’ve read about it, the only thing that comes to mind is “making my blocks a real square” or “get a professional looking finish.” When you’ve never blocked before, it’s easy to think “Well, I’m not going for a professional look. I’m only giving it away as a present.” Or, “My blocks look square right now! I don’t need to block.” Don’t deny it! You’ve thought that. I’ve definitely thought that. But then I had to remind myself that I’d never made anything out of squares before and after all, don’t I want my gift to look nice? Since I am making 3 babette blankets, I decide I could block at least one of them to see what difference it would make.

When I completed my first batch of blocks and pinned them to my board, I tried a few different techniques:

• pinning a dry square to the board, then getting it wet.
• really get the squares wet, dripping wet.
• Next I tried putting the pins in first and settling the squares on the board.
• The thing that worked the best for me was getting the squares soaking wet.

The first technique didn’t work too well. It felt strange and forced. The second helped with the squares I made with Red Heart yarn, because I had to crochet them so much tighter than the Caron.
Dripping wet made it extremely easy to position the squares. The next was a little weird and bent the pins. The last technique worked best for me. I just made sure all parts of the square were wet, and then pinned them down. I did this on a Monday night, expecting the squares to take a week to dry (based on different things I’d read).

Blocking has been quite an experience, and I have to say I’m HOOKED! Here are some of the discoveries I made with blocking:

1. The blocks were all dry 24 hours later!
2. All the stretchy parts were corrected, almost to a straight line
3. They held their shape after the pins were taken out
4. The squares seem flatter, even thinner in height
5. I can’t feel the thread bump! I crocheted in all of my tails, and you can feel where they start and stop. That is, until they are blocked!
6. Finally, the squares are very perceptively soft!

Progress so far (as of 7/12/2009):
2 Round Squares: 50/50 (33 blocked)
4 Round Squares: 19/49 (0 blocked)
6 Round Squares: 0/16
8 Round Squares: 0/7
10 Round Squares: 0/2
12 Round Squares: 2/2

Wow! Blocking makes a HUGE difference.

First, I should say that I have never blocked before. I have no idea if I’m doing it correctly. The idea to do this came from a ravelry user after I looked through her pictures and read her blog. In her notes, she says she didn’t block, but used a steamer. What a great idea! I don’t have a steamer, but I was able to get a corkboard. So I made my own blocking grid and spritzed the squares with distilled water. It is amazing to me the difference that blocking makes on the squares – I can’t wait to see them when they are done.

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