Babette blanket

Just a little update on my Babette Blanket... you can find the pattern HERE...

I have always been a knitter, my great-grandmother taught me when I was really small. I remember knitting clothes for my dolls, and I still have some patterns from back then. Knitting comes easy to me, i can sit and watch tv and make socks and not have to pay much attention to what i am doing...

not so with crochet..

I was taught to crochet when I was 15, by a friend who made gloves with tiny hooks and thin crochet cotton. I have never been able to master anything like that. I have mostly crocheted edgings on knitted garments, small flowers and other motifs, and I once made a red and white striped tunic.... all very basic.

when I decided to make a blanket, I first looked at knitted ones, but after working out the cost I soon realized that I just could not afford to make one. Then quite by chance I saw 3 friends all post photos of their Babette Blankets in progress. After investigating, I worked out it was going to cost less than half the price of a knitted blanket. So I bought the pattern, some yarn and got started.

After a few false starts, I was well away, surprised at how quick each square was to make. At one point I decided some weren't neat enough and pulled them out to redo them.


As I type this I now have 72 squares done....almost halfway.

I bought cream,tan,blue,grey and black for my squares, but to keep a uniform colour running thru the blanket I decided to edge each square in lime green. I already had 2 balls in my stash....the crisis came when I realised that I was going to run out of green, and it was a discontinued colour.....ohh nooeess

A couple of weeks of online searching and a few phone calls and I managed to get another couple balls of the green...Phew!

Woolly things..

The cold weather always makes me want to knit, so here are a few things that have been done recently.

First up, I saw a photo on FB of some covered headphone wires, and couldn't resist having a go. They were really easy to make. I used up some leftover sock yarn and just a basic crochet stitch.  A bit naff? well maybe, but I actually love them, and having the thicker wire means they don't tangle up as much.

Next up is this scarf, SWISS CHEESE SCARF. It is a free pattern over on Ravelry. I downloaded it probably a couple of years ago but only just got around to making it. 

As you can see it is full of holes, it takes a bit of practise to get the pick up stitches tight, but on the whole it is an easy pattern. 

I had no idea how long to make it, the pattern doesn't say. But apparently a scarf should be roughly the same as your height. This meant even though I am small I still had a lot of knitting to do. it did get a bit tedious at the end. I don't always block, but i decided to block this so that the holes would be more circular. It is so long I had to pin it out onto a camping mat.

Another little project from Ravelry, this time  A BOBBLE BRACELET, this took no time at all to make.

 and soon I was wearing it..

Just because it is super cute, I made this mousie....(pattern on Ravelry)

Finally I saw a couple of people on FB talking about Babette blankets that they were crocheting. Now I have been looking for a blanket pattern for a while. I had intended to knit one, but OMG they take so much yarn and work out ridiculously expensive. So when I saw the BABETTE BLANKET I decided this was the one for me...especially as it takes less than half the yarn. 

I have been doing a square a day, keeping it relaxed and unhurried, in amongst all my other projects.

Here are the squares done so far.

The main colours are grey,black,white,stone and airforce blue...keeping it all fairly neutral. i decided to edge all the squares with lime green. this will make joining them neater and will add a little colour throughout without being overpowering. 

What woolly things have you been doing?

Sweet Snowflakes

I have 2 ways here to use these sweet little crocheted snowflakes. Firstly I covered a ruler with masking tape, this is just to protect it.I then cut 2 metres of  crochet yarn and wound it onto the ruler, keeping the strands next to each other and flat. 

Now colour the yarn with your promarkers. For this project I used my Winter 2012 Limited Edition Promarkers  Use the broad nib and quickly go over all the strands, turn the ruler over and continue to colour. 

Leave to dry, by the time I had coloured 2 metres of each of the 6 winter pens, the first ones were ready to use.

Now take a number 1 crochet hook and use your coloured yarn to make an embellishment. You could of course make a flower, but as it is winter I decided to make snowflakes. I found a lovely and simple 2 round pattern on this blog...

I decided to make some sweet little bookmarks, ideal to give away if you are buying books or giving book tokens for Christmas. So in the middle of the final round of crochet I slipped on a paper clip.

When I was finished they looked so pretty, but they were very soft. So to make them stiffer ,and more durable to use as a book mark, I dabbed on some white glue. Squish it between your fingers to make sure the glue saturates all the yarn. Finally I dabbed on some glitter glue and left them to dry.

Here they are, 6 cute little bookmarks.

I did say I would show you 2 ways to use them. Well here is the second, this time I did not add any glue or glitter, as I wanted the snowflakes to remain soft. 

I coloured up this sweet Lolita image..

To make her into a winter ballerina I used my Flexmarkers...

Skin – blush and sunkissed pink

Hair – saffron and gold

Clothes – cocktail pink,antique pink,mint green and soft green

Snowflakes – mint green,pastel green and soft green

I added her to an embossed background and glued on the soft snowflakes. 

I added a couple of different widths of sheer ribbon at the bottom, they are both coloured with the same pens.  I edged the embossed card with glitter and added a dew drop to the middle of each snowflake.

Hope you have fun colouring your crochet yarn, if you have a go leave me a link so I can see what you made.