Babette Blanket, First Squares

Three years ago in Cambridge, MA, Greg saw Manos Del Uruguay yarn for the first time. He picked up a skein of colour 109 Woodland, and declared that I must make us an afghan out of it. He persisted despite my explanation that it would be wildly expensive. We bought all the 109 they had, along with some 54 Brick. Since then I've picked up some more of each, along with some green (55, I don't know the name), Wheat and Loden (can't remember the numbers).

We visited the afghan idea several times since then, but never came to a conclusion about a pattern. (I did nix his request for an afghan made of 4x4" squares of stockinette stitch.)

And then the grannying started. And then the Babettes. And then we went to Purl where Greg saw their Babette, and that, dear friends, was all she wrote.

This weekend I played with colours (we have 5; Babette calls for 19), and I started crocheting. The large square in the photo is the largest in the blanket, at 12 rounds. I don't like the colour scheme in it, but I'm sucking it up. Unlike for my random scrap grannies, I'm following this pattern to the letter, just for variety. (Ok, not to the letter. I'm starting with an adjustable ring, not the chains the pattern calls for.)The smaller square is 4 rounds. I'm using a 6mm hook and figure the blanket will be about 40% larger than the Koigu original. I have no idea if we'll have enough yarn. I'm starting out with 16 hanks; I'm hoping that'll do it. Stay tuned...