It's cold outside

It's been so cold, that 26 degrees Fahrenheit seems balmy today. The worst temperature I witnessed was -1 Fahrenheit.

Naturally, I've been hard at work on blankets I likely won't finish before spring. First up is a very old WIP, and more garter stitch than I ever thought I could do while remaining calm:



This is out of lion brand Homespun. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that it's amazingly soft. The photo shows four of seven strips sewn up. Strip number five is on the needles. I ran into some problems with the dye lots of the black/white yarn; naturally the same dye lot varied dramatically, but luckily it wasn't anything a trip to Joann for some exchanging action couldn't fix. It was a close call, however.

Next up is my first major crochet undertaking:



A Babette Blanket! Rather than 13 colors of sock yarn, I opted for six worsted colors of Knitpicks Swish Superwash (Black, coast grey, fired brick, bordeaux, dark navy, and jade) which is an awesome yarn! Washable soft wool for cheap... I must say I was pleasantly surprised; I thought it was going to be a little rougher like Wool of the Andes, but it's just not the case. It's a million times softer!

Crochet FO - first ever!

I sorta vaguely knew how to crochet before. But when I saw a pattern for a magnetic katamari, I knew I needed to learn.



Here it is! Magnetically doing its job. I can't collect enough junk to make a star, but perhaps Joann should carry larger magnets... I think it's destined to hold paper clips on my desk or something.

But having learned to properly crochet from a pattern, I feel like a new world has opened up to me; there are a couple patterns out there I've been wanting to tackle, and now it seems possible!