A riff on the Babette Blanket
This blanket was inspired by the Babette Blanket, and by my stash. I love the bold, multi-color splashiness of the Babette Blanket, and I had some Chroma worsted samples to play with. I’ve called it a “Nanette Blanket” after my middle name (Nan), and the bumbling character from the musical “No No Nanette.” This was definitely my typical, bumbling experimental project!
Some of the Chroma samples I had were legit, and I was sent off by the Knit Picks folks to knit something beautiful. Some of the samples were odd runs, with mistakes in the color gradations. For my purposes, that didn’t matter, and I absolutely love the way Chroma gently transitions from color to color. It makes a much softer scheme than the traditional Babette Blanket.
I decided to work with ratios of 3 – so I’d make blocks of 3, 6, 9, and 12 in a traditional granny square. I made a bunch of blocks, and then began to worry about sewing them together. What color yarn would look good, given all the different colors I was using? I had a bag of Coal Wool of the Andes left over from a sweater I made my husband, so I decided to add a black border to my blocks. Unfortunately, that left me with NON ratios of 4, 7, 10, and 13. Ouch. Fortunately, I still had a sort of “3” radio, since I could then make a bunch of 3s (2s with a black border) and cobble things together that way.
I tried several times to lay out big swatches of the blanket, but I couldn’t keep track of all my little pieces and what size they might be, so I realized that I was going to just have to lay it out and sew it together as I went. I was working at the company warehouse in Ohio during the initial piecing phase. (*Drool*) I cruised the Chroma aisles looking for new colors to add to my blanket. It was heavenly to get to see and touch all the colors variations. I peppered the poor returns staffer with emails about my light-fingered yarn depredations.
As I pieced and sewed, I discovered that I needed some odd sizes – like a 2×3, or a 3×5, so I sewed little granny squares together and then added a black border.
Odd sizes to fill odd spaces
There are definitely things I would do differently next time. I would keep my big blocks in the more muted colors, and mix in the brighter colors as small blocks. And it isn’t quite as random as I would like, which is a side effect of laying it out in a small space (bedroom floor) and having to keep the finished half rolled-up for the most part. But all in all, I’m happy with the blanket, and it is really lovely, soft and warm!
