From one extreme to the other...

For some time I have been deliberating about starting a big crochet project. Big as in blanket size. In this post, I was still undecided, but now the decision has been made and the winner is a Babette Blanket.

I knew that I wanted to use Debbie Bliss Eco Yarn, as I loved the colour palette and I love working with cotton. It's a fairly heavyweight yarn and I'm using a 3.5mm hook, so it's quite compact and will be heavy but cosy, I hope.

The Babette looks like a patchwork quilt and that is exactly how it is made. You make panels of squares then put them together, logcabin-like. I'm only using 10 colours, whereas the pattern really uses 17, so I substituted my colours on the key, repeating all of them except 3 (red/green/brown) and it is such good fun seeing how the squares work out by just following the key instead of fussily deciding which colour to use next. I've mentioned before that I struggle with random so this is the perfect way out of what I know would be hours wasted faffing about thinking about the colours and whether they were balanced and equal.

I started off by making the 2 big 12-round squares to see how the colours worked together.

Then I got cracking on the panels in order so that I can join them together and watch it grow. It's addictive, let me tell you.

I wanted a project like this to keep on the back burner to come back to between smaller projects, but I've made a good start at it and my wrist is actually sore from hooking! I will post Babette's progress through the summer...

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At the other end of the crochet spectrum is this:

When I was in the Cotton Patch a while back looking for fabrics for my red/turquoise quilt, I spotted a drawer full of these lovely embroidery threads. When I see colour en masse, the temptation is too much and I came home wondering what I could use it for.

Then I had the brainwave of trying to downsize some of my amigurumi by substituting this thread for the usual dk yarn that I use.

So, I placed an order for a selection of colours and played around to find the right size hook - 1.5mm - to get the crochet tight enough not to let any stuffing escape. I chose one of my favourite patterns... And look! A tiny head is made!

Fiddly but fun! I can only work on this in daylight (maybe I need to get an eyetest...) as the stitches are impossibly small and in black it's even harder to see them. But isn't he cute? I can't show you how much smaller he is than the original as he doesn't live here anymore, but he's about an inch and a half tall (or small?!).

Now there's something you don't see often - a penguin amongst succulents!

I think I may have OCD. Obsessive Crochet Disorder. I've now got a bee in my bonnet over this yarn - it's gorgeous, take my word for it, and the colours? Delicious.