Whoop! Interweave Press is now offering the Babette Blanket crochet pattern for $6.00. It is a downloadable PDF file so you'll get the pattern right away! The Babette Blanket designed by Kathy Merrick was published in the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine - and back issues of that issue recently sold out on Interweave's website.

On the Babette Blanket order page, Interweave has also included the complete yarn list, gauge and crochet hook information.

You can also create your own one-of-a-kind version of the Babette Blanket by drawing squares in different sizes and selecting your own colors - which is what I did to design the additional panel for my Babette Blanket.

Because I don't like the join showing on one side of each square, I join in a corner instead (see the photo of the red square - there's no line down the center of any of the 4 sides). The pattern for the granny squares is published as square #3 Square Target in the book "200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans" by Jean Eaton - AND, it is square #77 in "99 Granny Squares to Crochet" (with this mod: make each corner 2dc ch 2 2dc) by Leisure Arts. There is also an online version of the square pattern called "No Seam Granny Square" at Chez Crochet (scroll to bottom of page).

I also crocheted a Babette-style blanket using solid colored squares and a custom layout.

Create your custom blanket layout using 2-row, 4-row, 6-row, 8-row, and 10-row squares. You can make squares that change color every row and/or every 2 rows or every 3 rows, and/or solid-color squares.

Use these joining instructions for a good result.

Have fun with it - don't feel constrained to make the original Babette! Examples of other Babette-inspired blankets are on the Flickr Babette Blanket pool.

• Size: 58 inches x 75 inches (without border: 55 inches x 72 inches)
• Colors: Bone, Sage, Red, Red Violet, Limelight, Violet, Chocolate, Mango, Lemonade, Blue Mint, Grape, Soft Green, Berry Blue, Watermelon, Rubine Red, Iris (Caron Simply Soft) (see thumbnails of these colors!)
• Pattern: Babette Blanket - Design by Kathy Merrick (with modifications by me)
• Book: Interweave Crochet (magazine) - Spring 2006 - Copyright 2006 - Interweave Press
• Hook: G
• Date: start June 24; finish August 13 (but didn't work on it for a total of about 17 days during this time period)

[UPDATE January 2008: Interweave Press is offering the Babette Blanket pattern on their website!]

A larger view of the full-size completed Babette Blanket (I need to take a better photo!!!):

Simply put: I'm in love.

The default configuration:

To make the Babette Blanket in its original configuration (without the border; 55w x 51h) using worsted weight Caron Simply Soft yarn and a G hook, I used less than 1 skein of yarn for each of the 17 colors, including Color A. In addition, although the pattern says to use Color A for joining all the squares and panels, I instead used one of the colors of the squares that were being joined.

My additional panel:

By the time I had completed the additional panel I designed to make the blanket more rectangular (55w x 21h), I had still used only one skein of each color, but Color A C is very low.

For the border around the rectangular-shaped Babette Blanket, I used Colors R, K, and S in that order.

Below is the chart and layout of the additional panel I designed for my Babette Blanket - it is joined at the bottom of the original design (if you have the pattern for Babette, these will be familiar to you):

The pattern for the squares is a common variation of the traditional granny square. Because I don't like the join showing on one side of each square, I join in a corner instead. It is published as square #3 Square Target in the book "200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans" by Jean Eaton - AND, it is square #77 in "99 Granny Squares to Crochet" (with this mod: make each corner 2dc ch 2 2dc) by Leisure Arts. I just found this online version of the square pattern called "No Seam Granny Square" at Chez Crochet (scroll to bottom of page).

The value in using the Babette Blanket pattern created by Kathy Merrick published in the Spring 2006 Interweave Crochet magazine is having the color charts for the squares and the diagram of the square placement. Based on my experience creating the additional panel for my Babette Blanket, the planning of square placement and colors in the original pattern is excellent!

Thumbnails of the Caron Simply Soft colors I used:

Bone

Sage

By Thursday evening last week, I had finished crocheting all 126 squares required by the original pattern for my Babette Blanket! 50 2-round, 49 4-round, 16 6-round, 7 8-round, 2 10-round, and 2 12-round squares!

I began whip stitching the squares together on Friday mid-morning (we work a modified 40-hour a week schedule during summers and get Fridays off). And...there are still more squares to assemble!

When that's done, however, I will crochet more squares for another panel to add to my Babette to make it a larger, rectangular shape. I've already designed the arrangement of squares for the additional panel, but am waiting to choose colors for the additional squares until I see the colors laid out on the original-sized Babette Blanket.

So exciting! I just love the colors I chose!

After thinking about it more, I decided that Copper Kettle is too much of a warm color for my mainly cool-tone Babette Blanket. So, instead of Copper Kettle, I've settled on Bone. The "less blue" color change is working very well too!

Last Sunday, I crocheted 26 4-round squares and began another 2 4-round squares! Due to clothes shopping after work throughout the week (mostly for something appropriate to wear at my stepson's wedding on the beach in Maui), I haven't had time to work more on the blanket - until last night and today! As of this moment, there are 49 4-round and 2 12-round squares done (photographed above in a random pile) and awaiting their 10-, 8-, 6-, and 2-round companions. I've sketched a design for an additional panel of squares to make my Babette more rectangular than the pattern's basically square blanket.

Complete color chart with final change...

I've changed my mind on some of the colors (yes, for the third time!). There were too many blues - a color I generally dislike. See chart of changes below.

Changes to Caron Simply Soft yarn colors for my Babette Blanket

Koigu color	(Dark / Medium / Light) Color description	Caron Simply Soft color
French Blue	(D) medium-dark blue (not bright)	Rose Violet	changed from: Country Blue
Baby Blue	(L) light blue	Soft Green	changed from: Soft Blue

Complete color chart with above changes...

[Updated June 23, 2007 - Changed my mind ... again.]

For about 3 weeks now, I've been working on a white full-size pineapple-style afghan as a wedding gift for my stepson and his fiance. But the Babette Blanket - with all her glorious colors - has still been on my mind! I wasn't satisfied with the colors I had, so I did more online hunting and purchased a bunch of different colors from Caron and JoAnn Fabrics.

These are the colors I've decided to use for Babette (for now at least). They are close to the colors used in the photos of the Babette Blanket in the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet. I discovered during my research into the Koigu yarn colors that images of those colors on various websites didn't match what is shown in the magazine photos. I decided to go with the vibrant colors shown in the magazine!

Complete color chart...

Babette has lots of colors - 17 to be exact! And she's been on my mind...I want to make her for myself! I love granny squares! A blanket of grannies using a bunch of different size squares in lots of colors is just my thing!

Of course, I could have created this type of blanket on my own (Cherylette? Cherette?), but all the work of charting the colors and placement of squares has been done for the Babette Blanket pattern, so I recently acquired via eBay the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet in which the Babette Blanket pattern is detailed. [UPDATE January 2008: Interweave Press is offering the Babette Blanket pattern on their website!] Wool yarn can be itchy, so I won't be using the Koigu Premium Merino wool yarn called for by the pattern. Besides, not all the colors of Koigu are available (at least from the online searches I've done) - and I'm not willing to spend $12.95 per skein for 21 (more to make the blanket larger than 43 inches x 40 inches) skeins for an afghan, regardless of how lovely the finished product is.

Caron Simply Soft is available in a variety of colors - and it is on sale starting today at Michaels Craft Store! I told Bill I could heard Michaels calling me to come buy some yarn...he laughed as he waved goodbye.

These are the colors I've (probably) decided to use for the Babette Blanket. They don't exactly match the colors used for Babette, but it's a granny blanket with lots of colors so that's what I have: lots of colors.