The “C” Word

Most of you know I occasionally pick up the hook.  It usually happens out of the blue and this time was no exception.  From the moment it came out, I have always admired the Babette Blanket.  Somehow I got it in my head last week that it might finally be time to do it.  Most people on Ravelry used a different yarn than the called for Koigu.  While I LOVE Koigu, I really can’t afford  22 skeins for a blanket.  Plus, the finished dimensions are only 43″ x 40″ and I’d like it to be larger than that.  So I went on a yarn search.  It had to be washable (dogs!), mostly wool, worsted weight, come in at least 18 colors and be affordable.  This turned out to be quite the task!  I finally got lucky in the most unusual place (at least for me) Herrschner’s.  They had SRK Perth on sale…wait for it…$1.50 per skein.  I KNOW!  I couldn’t believe it either.  Perth is a 70/30 wool acrylic blend, which while not 100% wool superwash was close enough for me at that price.

The UPS man was still on the street when I started the first square.  I’m calling it a swatch.  Since it’s been several months since I’ve crocheted, well, I’ll be gentle and just say it was a little rough.  I decided that I should probably use a smaller hook and from there my work became more attractive.  I’m not sure if it was the hook or just a bit of getting back into the groove but the second square looks much better.  In fact, I even finished it this morning so I could show you but then I noticed a big mistake.  A mistake that quite possibly explains why my square is a bit ruffly.  See that center with three rounds of beige?  Yeah.  Should only be two.  Damn it!  I’m going to try to convince myself that I needed the practice anyway before moving onto the actual project. For now I’m moving on to the next few squares and when I finally get over this I’ll rip it back to the beige and start over.