The second prompt for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year.

This one’s kind of a head-scratcher for me. I’ve been knitting since I was a kid and would call myself an “expert knitter” (if there is such a thing), by which I mean that I’ve tried just about everything and have gotten to the point that I rarely think “oh this is hard” about any knitting or crochet project. I might think it’s annoying, or tedious, or not fun to physically do (two-color brioche comes to mind and entrelac are in that category for sure) . . . but that’s not really the same thing.

Looking back on the previous year’s worth of projects in Ravelry, I would say that if there’s one change it’s that I’ve mostly gotten over my loathing of weaving in ends. I still don’t enjoy it, but in the past I would avoid projects that had too many ends to weave in, no matter how much I liked the idea of the project . . . and I no longer do that. Evidence?

Exhibit A:

HUNDREDS of ends to weave in on Babette

Exhibit B:

Dozens of ends of Koigu to weave in

Now, mind you that I’m not saying I’ve actually woven in those ends yet . . . the progress is more mental that skill-based. I still hate weaving in ends and will procrastinate on that step in a project for WAY WAY WAY too long. I really like the seaming part of finishing and am quite good at it, but the weaving? Blech.

Speaking of which: If you’re a NYC knitter and want to trade seaming for weaving in ends, drop me a line. It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

This is how far I am into section 9 of the Babette blanket. It’s still so beautiful and so much fun!

Although, all I can think of when I look at this particular picture is, “woah, that’s a lot of ends to weave in when I’m done.”

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PS – I mean it when I say “daily photo”: I’m attempting to take at least one photo per day of something knitting/crochet related. Now that I’ve discovered how awesome the pictures my iPhone takes are, this is going to be way easier than it was in the past. I can hardly believe the above photo (and the ones from yesterday) were taken on my phone! It’s a rare day that goes by that I don’t touch something yarn-related so this will be a fun project to remind me of what I too easily forget I’ve done. Hope you enjoy it too!

I’m on vacation with my parents this week in the Caribbean but thought I’d check in here and show you what I’ve been working on:

Babette!

I’ve been so inspired by the gorgeous multi-colored projects on the Completely Cachy blog lately! Every time I check in on her progress I’m impressed by her color sense and the stunning finished items she creates. It rekindled my passion for the Babette blanket!

Last week I attached section 8 to the blanket, so that means I only have 2 sections left. In the interest of getting some serious progress accomplished while on this trip, I brought no other projects but this one. What you see above is what I got done since I got here on Sunday night . . . not bad huh? That’s about one third of section 9.

I would have even more done by now if it hadn’t been for the fact that I forgot my color key at home. I brought the pattern, but not the key that mapped my colors to the letters of the pattern! When I realized that I was so annoyed at myself that I could hardly think.

The prospect of having nothing to do with my hands all week was enough to make me reverse-engineer the color key . . . which involved about an hour of staring at my previous progress photos on Flickr and mapping the colors to the letters in the intructions. In the end I have a new color key to work from:

So it was definitely worth it. And now, I also have a digital record of said color key, just in case I manage to make this bone-headed move again before finishing the project . . .

Hope you’re having a good week wherever you are! I’m headed back out to the pool now that the intense mid-day sun is passed. See you next week!

Finally, an FO to show! I actually finished this almost a month ago but kept forgetting to bring it to work with me to mail it off and I didn’t want to post until I’d sent it out. Now that Gleek has received the blanket (and even put her own awesome picture of it in her Flickr stream) it’s finally time for the FO post.

And when I say finally, I really mean “FINALLY!” I started this blanket is the summer of 2007 folks! 3 years ago. Why the heck did I let it languish for so long almost finished? I totally love it! I always liked this pattern from the beginning, but initially I refused to even consider making it because of all those damn ends that need to be sewn in, never mind all the seaming involved. At the time I was still working at String and, as a side effect of working in a LYS, I was thinking of all projects in terms of how much work they would be to support the customer as the most important factor in any design . . . and this project is probably the ultimate bad project in those terms. When I think of it now, this is a perfect example of how working in a knitting store corrupted my love for knitting/crochet: instead of seeing a gorgeous, unique design, all I could see was how much of a pain it would be to support someone who was making this. Isn’t that sad?

Anyway, what changed my mind way back then was that one of my favorite customers started making the blanket using her scrap Koigu stash and she showed me the cute squares in person. They were adorable, but I still didn’t even want to THINK about all those ends . . . and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about the blanket itself. I kept stalking Babettes online and thinking about color combos. Then one day at work I pulled out that awesome shade of bright pink Filatura di Crosa, a color that has been calling my name since it arrived, and started putting a color palette together. The next thing I knew I had started the blanket, and in one day I made the first 3 sections. My custofriend (I think I made up that term, but I may have stolen it from someone, forgive me if that someone was you), Emily, the one who had brought her own Koigu Babette in, gave me a hard time and made fun of me for starting after all my kvetching, and with good reason. I’m pretty sure I thanked her for pushing me over the edge to make this, but if I didn’t: Thank you Emily! If it weren’t for you I probably would never have started this pattern!

And it’s obvious how much I love it since I’m making a second one right now . . .

Project specs:
Pattern: Babette Blanket, originally in Spring ’06 Interweave Crochet, now available as a single pattern here
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Zara
Hook: size D
Started: July 2007 (OMG!)
Finished: April 2010

This picture is already outdated as I’m currently almost done with section 8 of Babette, but here’s how it looked after joining section 7. I’m loving it more and more as it comes together! This weekend I went out and bought a second skein of the four “main” colors (fuchsia, chocolate, off-white, and light gray) and I believe that I’ll have enough to finish the whole blanket with just those second skeins. Which would mean only 15 skeins total for this project! Even with paying Purl’s price of $7.50 per skein that’s a really good deal for a whole blanket’s worth. If you compare that to knitting the original out of Koigu, it’s about 50% cheaper! And you end up with a much larger blanket too since the gauge is much bigger.

I’m working on a post (or possibly 3 posts) explaining all the modifications I’ve done to Babette, including how to work it up in way fewer colors, how to crochet the squares like I did (meaning with the rounds starting at a corner instead of the middle of one side), and joining as you go with crochet. I’m thinking of calling the posts “Optimizing the Babette Blanket Pattern” . . . but I’m worried that it sounds too business-speak for the needlecraft world?

On another note, check out my new bag!

This bag isn’t really knitting-related, but it would be a good knitting bag (no zipper or Velcro to ruin your yarn!) so I wanted to share it with all of you. It just arrived last week and I’m already totally in love with it. Most people who know me IRL know I have a weakness of purses and bags, especially LARGE ones. I’ve been trying to downsize lately because I keep finding myself carrying around more stuff than I’m willing to admit, but when I saw this big, almost briefcase-like bag at Pansy Maiden, I had to have it. Their bags are completely handmade and the workmanship is impeccable. The amount of thought that went into the design is abundantly evident as well. Just look at all the pockets:

(clearly, I didn’t clean up the contents to take this shot)

There are two pockets on each side, plus a key hook (SO useful!), plus the big pouch on the front (holding my umbrella in the first picture). The pockets are super deep and a nice width so plenty of stuff fits in there. As an iPhone person I often have problems with the inside pockets of bags, which are sizes for traditional cell phones and therefore don’t fit an iPhone, but this bag doesn’t have that problem at all!

My favorite pocket on the bag is probably this one though:

Just a simple zip pocket on the back of the bag, but it’s a pocket that almost never exists on any bag, regardless of how big. I use this pocket for the important papers I’m always carrying around. I love a good pocket!

Oh, and you see the d-ring on the bag? It came with a long strap so the bag can be carried like a messenger bag instead of a shoulder bag! It’s definitely a nice extra touch. The strap, like the rest of the bag, is incredibly well constructed. I literally marvel at the design, workmanship, and finish on this bag. I’m proud to be carrying it around with me on a daily basis and I hope more people buy from this vendor so we can keep her making beautiful bags for years to come.