the babbette saga continues

Its definitely January. How do I know? (Aside from the negative temperatures and the cruel amount of snow we are currently buried under...)

Because my body has done its most impressive trick...taking the common cold and mutating it into some kind of bizarre virus that no flu shot in the world can tackle. It seems to be a tradition for me, one that I am getting to fully enjoy right now. My head is stuck somewhere between feeling like a brick and floating. I'm spending my days with a napping schedule that rivals that of a two-year-old that hasn't slept in a week. Good times.

In one of my more lucid periods yesterday (and because I get pissed at the virus and decide that I will not do its bidding by laying on the sofa anymore), I finished crocheting the last block of Babette. Then I drug all the blocks onto the floor and just kind of started at them:


That, my friends, is a whole lot of crochet.

I'm now faced with the task of making them do an impersonation of a blanket. As discussed before, we are looking at making twins out of this pile. I had contemplated making them one gigantic piece but the truth is that the last afghan I finished seems to be a good size. I worry that making it too big will make it all stretchy and stupid looking and there was too much work involved to let it end that way.

So I started fussing with a layout for the first one to see how it will work out:

I'm actually pretty happy with it. I do plan to shuffle some of the blocks to mix the colors a little better but I like the layout for it. (And do not mention all the ends that still need to be woven in. I refuse to acknowledge them right now. I tend to weave them in as I sew the blocks together, makes the finishing more bearable and makes me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with it when I see pieces of it joined together. I am easy to fool, it makes for a pleasant existence.)

Even with the crocheting done (with the exception of the border) and a fairly solid layout, I'm still feeling twitchy about it. Why you ask? Here's why:

The layout above didn't seem to make a dent in the pile shown in the first picture. I'm considering maybe trying to do something fancy for the borders (translation: throwing in some blocks just to use the damn things up.)

I will not say at this point that I could get three blankets out of this. Unless the third one is a tiny one that fits the length and width of a particular west highland terrier. But that seems silly to do since little man will simply steal the larger ones. He is an afghan thief.

Here is proof:


(Please not the slightly dirty look I'm getting for taking this picture.)

The afghan drive has not wavered. Now that I am the end of one, I am turning my attention toward what the next one can be. They are the perfect project for me to work on when I'm laying down resting my back. I've decided I'm going to knit the next one, never knitted one before. I've chosen the Totally Autumn throw designed by Anne Hanson. But I'm going to knit it in yarn that is not autumn in any way. Makes sense.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lay down. I've used up my allotment of feeling-halfway-decent time block. Rock on.