Babette Construction - Section One and Two

Right then, lets get started.  I figured that as section one only has one square in it that the first part of this will be both section one and two together.  So I will start by listing the squares by the identifying numbers from the pattern and the colours I will be using

The Squares
12-1 uses Matador and Shrimp
6-7 and 6-8 use Shrimp and Saffron

Construction Note
A quick note about construction, I'm using the same style of square from the pattern and my colour chart (shown here) indicates I will be changing colour every round.  I start my squares using a magic adjustable ring and use my earlier blog entry to join the squares together, here.

Construction Order
Before I go ahead and get started I'm going to check out the pattern and see if there's a nice neat sequence I can use to join the squares together.  At the moment this is easy to decide as we haven't started yet, so let me try to explain what I decided and why.

I could make 12-1 first then attach 6-7 and finally 6-8, however that would mean that 6-8 would have to be "set in" to a corner.  While joining into a corner isn't harder, as I'm new to this I want to try and keep the early joins straightforward.  So what I'm going to do is join 6-7 and 6-8 together first and then attach 12-1 to the side of them

The First Join
The joining is done on the last round of the squares, so for now I'm going to start by making each square to one round less than they are supposed to be.  At that point I'm going to take the time to weave in any tail ends as the last thing I want is to have all my ends to weave in later as I know I will have a lot of them.  We are using Part 1 of my tutorials for this join.

The first picture shows me ready to start my join, in the corner I've done 2 DC and 1 chain.

The next picture shows the first chain joined and made.

Heres the first DC joined and made.  Continue on from here, joining each DC in turn.

The last DC joined and made.

The end of the join, the 2 chains.

Now, the last picture, this shows the join completed, there are 23 DC on the side of these squares.

Adding 12.1

Next I need to join 12.1 onto the side of this piece, 12.1 has 47 stitches on one side.  To verify that the join will fit here's the maths, 23 multiplied by 2 is 46, add in 1 for the seam, equals 47 (the number of  stitches on the side of 12.1).  The picture below show me ready to begin my join.  I used Part 4 of my joining series to add this square.

The next picture shows the first chain joined and made.

Here's the first DC joined and made.  Continue on from here, joining each of the next 22 DC in turn so you have 23 DC joined and made.

Here we have 23 DC joined and made, the loop just prior to making the 24th DC has been joined through the free corner chains of the other two squares.

Now we have made the 24th DC and can continue to join the remaining 23 DC to 6.8.

The last DC joined and made.

The end of the join, the 2 chains.

Now, the last picture, this shows the join completed.

I love the way the orange when next to the yellow looks very orange but when next to the red it looks like a salmon pink.  I am really enjoying making this so far, the joining method is making it fun.  I love the way the join looks when there are 2 colours as its easy to do :)


Have Fun!

Babette Construction - Introduction

I'm going to be making a Babette Blanket but using a Join As You Go method I've written about previously.  Theres a Crochet A-Long (CAL) on Ravelry that I'm joining in with and some people there expressed interest in what I'm trying to do.  As a result I'm going to keep a record here of what I'm doing and try to explain how I'm doing it so that others can do the same if they wish.


The disadvantage of the Babette that puts most people off is usually the many ends to weave in as well as having to seam all those squares together.  While the number of ends can depend on how often you change colours, my method of joining does not add to this number and doesn't use much extra yarn (to me its seems I'm using no extra yarn).

So lets get on with the yarn I'm using, which is Stylecraft Special DK.  This is an acrylic yarn, double knit weight which is cheap and very soft (unlike some acrylics I've seen).  Having some some swatches recently I found I needed to use a 5mm hook for this (I just hope my gauge doesn't change).

Something I realised from reading the forums on Ravelry was that some people found that their smallest squares were too large in proportion to the others and meant the squares did not fit together as they were supposed to. There are a couple of fixes for this, you could make the smaller squares with Half Double Crochets(HDC's) instead of Double Crochets (DC's) or use a smaller hook for those small squares only.  Just to clarify I'm talking about the two round squares only, you shouldn't need to adjust any other size square.

When I first swatched for a Babette I seamed my squares together and found that the smallest squares were too big and needed adjustment.  It was trying to fix this that stopped me from starting my project and in the end I gave up.  It was while swatching with the joining method I'm now using  that I noticed my joining method seemed to improve the fit to the point that I didn't need to make any adjustments to the smaller squares at all.  I'm assuming that the fit problem was due to the seams adding extra width which in something this large would cause problems.

So for now here's a picture of my yarn and another picture showing my layout coloured in with an extra section I designed myself (I wanted a rectangle not a square).

Have Fun!

Julie

Update on Babette

Right, if I recall correctly my last thoughts on this was to use Biggan Merino to get the colours I wanted.  This has changed considerably, mostly due to the price of the yarn, at £5 a ball it was going to cost a lot of money. 

Also I had been swatching up to test my gauge for this project and ran into some troubles.  It seems that the smallest squares in the pattern can often be too big to fit correctly in some areas.  It was this size issue that made me swatch, and I'm glad I did as mine were too big as well.  I tried a few different ways to re size my little squares but ended up unhappy about it and the cost of yarn and so decided to leave the Babette.

Since I gave up on it I found a palette of 8 colours in Stylecraft DK which I really loved, further to this a friend on Ravelry managed to convince me to join in the CAL she was starting in the new year.  A "Crochet A Long" or CAL is a few people working on the same design and helping each other with encouragement and pictures, in this case they are working on the Babette.

So having decided to change the yarn I would be using I went back to my colour chart and have spent a few days colouring and re-colouring and finally ended up with something I like.  It took me so long because my first recolours I got confused and used 6 colours instead of the 8 that I was supposed to.  So I fixed that and coloured in the chart with solid blocks of those 8 colours.

Although this looks like each square will be one colour, they wont be as I have a plan.  If I get the time I will add another picture showing this.

More Babette Ponderings

Right since I first starting thinking about this I've changed my mind a bit.  To be fair that's normal for me its to be expected.

First off I am not using Bonus DK as the colour range isn't wide enough for the Warm/ Cold colours I wanted to do.  Someone pointed out to me on the "We Love Lucy" group on Ravelry that the Babette cushion I said I like was being made with Biggan Merino 8ply (DK weight).  So off I went and immediately started drooling, bought a shade card and I am still drooling.  It does cost more per ball, well d'oh its merino its supposed to, but the shades it comes in make it worth it and then some.  I can't get enough of the shades this comes in  :)

So now I have got my yarn sorted I decided to plan out a rectangle Babette by making an extension.  I was happy too that I have managed to draw this in Electric Quilt 7.  This means once I get the colours picked I can colour it in on screen and plan out what I'm doing well in advance.  For now though i need to save up for my yummy yarn :)

Other than all this I have been up to a lot and think I need to do a few postings to show what I've been up to.  Finishes, new starts and ideas :)

See you soon :)

Babette Ponderings

I think I first saw the Babette on Ravelry sometime and liked it.  To be fair I wasn't keen on the colours but I loved the design and to me it seemed mad! Just like me :).

So I bought the pattern, at the time I was working on my daughters throw which was granny squares using a Join as You Go method.  So I went back to Ravelry and looked at the pictures and saw that there were indeed some made from granny squares and not solid squares.

At this point I stopped, I'm skint at the moment so didn't think any further than that.  That is until I got the border on my daughters throw.  I suddenly thought "Could the Babette be done Join as You GO?"  I couldn't think of a reason why not, there would be a few kinks to figure out.  So again off I went to the Internet and found that someone has already done this, yey!  So now I knew it would work.

The thing is making a Babette needs planning especially if you are not using the yarn in the pattern as you need to figure out what colours you are using and then do your own lists etc so you know what you are doing.  You could wing it though :)  I will be using Bonus DK by Hayfield for two reasons, it’s cheap and its acrylic as well as the fact I have been using it and like it :)

The thing now is I need to plan as "Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail" no idea where that came from but it popped in my head.  I'm going to start by trying to draw the layout into Electric Quilt, which I already own.  Once I have that sorted I can colour it in to my hearts content.  Then I can make lists of colours etc.

I've been on Ravelry in the meantime looking at the photos there of other peoples Babettes’ trying to decide what I like and don't like about them.  I love the ones using just one colour scheme; there were just pinks and just green Barbettes’.  I also liked the ones where the colours were planned, I definitely wasn't too keen on the stash busting ones as the colours were too mad for me but they still looked cool.

Whilst on the way to the shops this morning in the rain I got thinking again.  What if I used a standard rainbow, I could have "warm" squares and "cold" squares.  I could also have some crossover squares, that way the throw would flow from warm to cold etc.  I like this idea but it would need a lot of planning, but I will be doing that regardless so I don't mind.  It suddenly occurred to me that some colours crossover anyways, you can have red yellow and orange in a warm square, blue yellow and green in a cold square.  I think my next step has to be to look at what yarn I would buy and go from there.  Although my first step is to draw it in EQ so I can colour it in on the PC.

My other major decision needs to be if I'm going to leave it square or make it bigger.  For now though it’s off to draw out the skeleton :)

See You Soon!