WIP--That Stands For Work In Progress!

I have been learning all kinds of things as a knitter. Apparently there are some abbreviations I need to know in order to communicate effectively with the online knitting community. There's the above-mentioned WIP, also there is FO, which stands for Finished Object, and LYS, which means Local Yarn Shop. When I learn more secret knitting codes I will share them here.

So yesterday Faythe and I went to our LYS, Holy Threads. They were having a 30% off everything sale. I bought 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon to make a hat to match my scarf, which was my first FO. I have some hat-making anxiety, but I figure that since it was the Noro yarn that got me to learn to knit in the first place, the Noro yarn will propel me through this mental hat block. Also I bought some lovely purple-ish Cascade 220 Superwash, not with any project in mind, but just because every knitter blogs about buying Cascade 220, and I did not want to be left out. Also I bought a book called Blue Ribbon Afghans From America's State Fairs. It's a crochet book, just so you know. Not only are there some cool patterns for afghans in it, there is also some interesting stuff on State Fairs. I like a pattern book that I can read as a book too. Yes, I have Mason-Dixon Knitting. It was a fun trip and not that costly, so good for me!

So the other day I was at Jo-Ann's, buying some more cotton to finish my WIP Absorba bathmat from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book (notice my use of the knitter's codes!), when I spotted this skein of cotton which I just had to have:



It's big. Really big. Here it is with a normal size skein of yarn and a normal size ball of cotton.



I bought it because I loved the color and they only had 3 skeins left. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it. Perhaps another bathmat.

Finally it's time for an update on my Babette blanket. I finished another panel and joined it up with it's buddies. I was so excited to show Faythe, I even made her hold it, which I'm sure she hated!



Boy, I feel like a knitting blogger now!

Thoughts on Babette

So here are the details. I saw the Babette blanket on this website, and I just had to do it. I had decided to order Swish Superwash yarn from Knit Picks, so I ordered 7 colors, enough to get started but far from the 17 colors the blanket requires. While I was waiting for the yarn to arrive, I was perusing this website and found that someone was making the blanket with Caron Simply Soft yarn. This idea appealed to me because the yarn was substantially cheaper and the colors were brighter. So I switched brands and went with the Caron. I did end up using 2 colors of the Swish as well.

Without giving away the pattern, I will say that the odd sized granny squares are joined in panels. There are 10 sections, first you assemble the squares in each section according to the pattern, then each panel is joined together. I have made 4 panels so far. Here are 2 pictures, with and without flash. Neither pic shows the true colors, but you get the idea.




I have decided to take a picture of the blanket after I finish each panel. But the panels are getting bigger so they will take longer to work up. Also, I have been weaving in the ends as I go, and it's not that hard, I don't know why people put it off until the end and have a million ends to weave in.

This ends my update for now.

OK, Here It Is So Far

I know it does not look like much but I am not a very fast crocheter. Or knitter.

Here is something I knit. It's a washcloth and it's much prettier than the picture.