Freeform CAL

I don't know what made me do it, but I am tempted to blame Gypsy Dancer for it. :P She showed off a freeform crochet piece at one of our recent local knitting meet-ups - it looked convincingly great!

Aaaanyway, some will know that I don't really crochet. Don't get me wrong, I think it's very handy and love doing little shell borders, but when it comes to picking patterns I just feel more comfortable in knitting. Doesn't help that I only vaguely know German crochet lingo, let alone British or American. Well, nevermind, I always wanted to do some freeform crochet and I am joining in this lovely freeform crochet-along on Ravelry to have some fun and perhaps pick up some new skills. The end result will be some kind of knitting bag, I think. To make it more my own I am trying to use mainly (if not only) my own handspun bits and leftovers.

Do join in if you like, I bet it will be fun!

Handspun button sweater WIP

After being so busy preparing for my recent craft fair, I have really been enjoying the calm last few days. I even finally started knitting a cardigan from my handspun Merino/silk singles (The type often appearing in my shop as well). The pattern I am basing it on is the button sweater by 'Oh my stars', a design I have been meaning to try out for ages. It is a top down raglan with a wide button band. The colours on this picture seem a bit washed out as you can mainly just see the shinyness of the silk... I will get some better pictures after more progress. As I am making it up as I go, there are already a few things I would do differently to improve fit, but I kept going as I plan on knitting another raglan in this style eventually anyway...

By coincidence (ok, not really, I just buy a lot of handmade buttons) I already have some lovely ceramic buttons that would go brilliantly with this sweater! http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=9226423