I finished section 6 of Babette today:

This is where it stands right now:

I made a deal with myself that once I was through six, I would start seaming before I moved onto the next section. Let’s see if I can keep my end of the bargain. I’m definitely loving how it’s looking and I think it will look even better seamed up, especially if Ann’s is any indication. But I’m the greatest procrastinator in the world when it comes to sewing stuff up (not that I don’t like sewing, I just like knitting/crocheting better) so your guess is as good as mine as to what I’ll do.

Right now, though, I’m off to romp through the sock yarn. Tomorrow is a vacation day, so no post, but I’ll see you Friday with a new monkey on the needles!

My day started out pretty shitty – and it’s the first day of one of my favorite months, but let’s try to distract ourselves with some pretty pictures!

This is 3/4 of section 5 – Babette – in case you can’t tell. I have one more 8 rounder to go before I’m done 5. Then it’s onto 6, then seaming. Here’s how the whole thing is looking right now:

I’m really enjoying how this is all coming together. Sure, I chose the colors and assigned them letters, but every time I look at the directions and see what letter combinations are coming up it’s a surprise! Sometimes I’m like ugh – that color next to THAT color, but so far I love the way it’s coming out! I wouldn’t change a thing!

I hope you like Babette. I think you might be seeing a bit of her for awhile. She’s captured my heart again.

Babs is doing quite well, thank you very much!

I’m following Ann‘s lead, doing a section at a time. The picture above shows through section 4. While Ann is seaming her sections as she goes along, I’m going to wait until I’m through with section 6 – and then I’m going to seam. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I love that we’re doing this project together, and even if she is beating me (It’s NOT a contest!!!), I love looking at her results to see just how good my blanket is going to look! Check hers out! She’s already seamed through section 5! How fantastic does it look?!?

I’ve totally gotten the hang of the crochet, now that my Addi hook is here. My squares now are so much better and neater than my first squares that I almost (ALMOST) want to rip out the first ones and do them over. We’ll see. I’m sure they look fine to anyone but me, because now I know all the little tricks to make them super neat, but that’s okay. It’s supposed to handmade and crochet seems a bit more wonky looking to me than knitting anyway. These ARE granny squares for goodness sake!

Don’t worry – I’m still knitting. I’ve been telling myself that I have to do one repeat on my monkey sock before I can make the next square. It’s working out quite well. I’ll probably have a finished sock either today or tomorrow and at least a few more squares. Although when my yarn for Bee gets here – all bets are off!

Have you seen my friend Ann’s new project? Go ahead – go look. Isn’t it FANTASTIC?

And do you remember this picture?

FINALLY! We’re doing BABETTE! YAY! I know I said I was going to knit Babette, but Annie really wanted to crochet it and after figuring out that knitting it would take about a million years longer, I said let’s do IT! We were so enamored with the Knitting Notions Online lace yarn we bought (that’s the stuff I used for Moth) that when it came time to pick yarn, I said hey – Katherine’s got a sportweight as well in all kinds of fabulous colors! So we bought 18 colors and split them. The pattern calls for semi-solid colors of Koigu, but this option was a bit cheaper and we’re getting gauge. Here’s how my breakdown is going to go:

As I mentioned, the yarn is Knitting Notions Sportweight Merino. The pattern calls for 17 colors, but we went with 18 – color letter J we’ve decided we can switch between two colors. We WON’T be making the same exact blanket though. Our main colors (A – of which you need almost 400 yds) are different – which makes our Js different. Otherwise I think we’re pretty similar.

This is the 12 round square for section 1. I’m following Ann’s lead and we’re crocheting them in the order they get seamed together. She’s already started seaming, but I think I might wait until the end. I like this method because that means you’re not always crocheting little ones or big ones but there’s some method to the madness. We’ve also assigned one of our colorways to one of the patterns letters so that we can just follow the leader. No thinking. Just crochet. I’m up for that.

I’m not planning on going nuts with this project. I’m looking forward to it being something I can reach for and feel like I’ve accomplished something in a short amount of time without a lot of thought. I need that right now, to be honest, and I think this project fits the bill perfectly.

The best part though is being able to do a project with Ann. We get on the phone and crochet and laugh and it’s all very GOULET.