*Yawn* Excuse me. I’m zonked from staying up most of the night marking up student draft papers. Must write two talks for a conference that has already started across the bay in San Francisco. On to crafting, so much more fun: Why did it take me so long? I just discovered the power of the granny square.
Instant and piecemeal gratification. Whip one up in five or ten minutes; as you finish them, set them aside in a pile until you have enough to make something, small or large. A bag. A pillow cover. A blanket! This could be addicting. 
Speaking of which, I decided on a crochet blanket pattern: the Babette Blanket, from Spring 2006 Interweave Crochet.
The pattern calls for about a dozen sumptuous colors of Koigu Premium Merino. Since that would cost *cough* a lot, we had a huddle on Craftster about yarn choices. One amazing version on Crochetville used Caron Simply Soft, but I suspect that yarn doesn’t hold up well to long term wear. Affordable wool choices: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (cheap and cheerful) or Cascade 220…
Elann PHW has an incredible color selection, but I really want a machine washable wool blend with no moth worries, so I’m leaning towards Plymouth Encore Worsted. It’s intimidating, a huge project with so many yarn colors, but I’m very excited too.
Your granny squares are cool! I love granny squares, they are so much fun…
I’ve knitted with Knitpicks wool of the andes before and really liked it. Their superwash also tends to be really soft and nice to work with.
Good luck on your presentations! (ahh, I remember those days…)
Yummy! You should join the Granny-Along! A few people (including me) are making Babettes.
Hey, I decided to do the Babette Blanket in Caron Simply Soft also. I already have all the yarn bought for it. I just have to start.
I started making squares a few weeks ago. I’m a cotton addict. Haven’t ever used wool. But I get bored quick so I haven’t progressed very far with my squares. I’d love to do a Babette, but I don’t think I could stick to it long enough to complete the project. I love your color choices. By the way, I’m a graphic artist at a dental college here in Dallas and one of my tasks is to format the thesis papers into pdf for the student so that they can submit it. I see their pain so I can imagine what you’re going through.
[...] to roll around in this, the colors are so great–they’re for the Babette blanket (see this post). Would have bought these at Michael’s except the one nearby only carries drab colors, yuck. [...]
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