why buy when you can make? shapely boyfriend cardigan

Done, my first knitted cardigan is officially finished!


Can you tell I’m excited? I absolutely loved knitting this, it was a great evening project to have on hand while watching a series (soo hooked on Game of Thrones).
Started in late December it took just two months to complete. I’d been meaning to knit a cardigan for years but considered it beyond my skills. Why do we always let fear keep us from just jumping in? The Shapely Boyfriend cardigan turned out to be a very easy, straighforward pattern and an enjoyable knit. Not to mention I love the result!
My Ravelry Project page.


I knit the size 34 on Drops Nepal yarn in this lovely butterscotch yellow colorway. My knitting got looser after starting on the body and I worried the cardigan would turn out to be too big. My stokinette back and forth knitting is also much more uneven than when I knit on DPNs. Thankfully both issues were improved by washing and blocking and while it is a tiny bit big I’m completely in love with it!

I’m now a sweater knitting convert, I had so much fun making this that I can’t wait to start my next cardigan or sweater. I’ve been browsing patterns on Ravelry for days, trying to decide on my next project.
Buying natural clothing has been my goal for years. Cotton, silk or viscose shirts are not hard to find, but real wool sweaters is another matter. Wool is not only a natural fiber it also keeps warmer than synthetic fibers, important for me as I get cold so easily in winter. Finding that I can just knit my own is such a revelation!

The only changes I made to the pattern was to shorten it by about 10 rounds and to space the buttonholes more evenly between the ribbing (as a result it has only 6 buttons instead of 7)

Worn with my handmade half-circle skirt. The necklace is by Native Clutter on Etsy.

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fall days

I think I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves today.

cityscapes: cologne

As some of you might know I work in Cologne, Germany. To make my lunch breaks more interesting I set myself a weekly challenge to take a series of pictures with the theme ‘yellow’.

All of these were taken with the Olympus OM 2N. Isn’t it funny how much english language there is in this very german city!

I must say I find it hard to take pictures in the city. I see little beauty in noisy, dirty, crowded streets, while the country with its quiet, muddy paths is heaven.

This one isn’t really yellowy but Lynda requested a close-up picture of a little old fashioned bakery shop I photographed before:

yellow

One of my favourite colours and just right for spring days.

diptychs

You may not have noticed, but I love, love, love dipytchs (2 photos in 1). I am trying to refrain from making too many of them and instead try to take pictures that stand out on their own. But every now and then I can’t help myself and once I start there’s no stopping me.
This pink watering can resides at the barn and was my shot of the day four days ago. It’s an ok shot on its own I think, but I love it along with the lead ropes.

Yesterday was another long business day full of hauling shoe cases and waiting around for clients. It was grey and rainy and foggy outside the whole day, but these little flower vases inside the building totally made up for that! And the upside of sitting around waiting is that you can get lots of handsewing done in between…perfect for little take-along projects (oh, I’m so excited to show my latest, but it’s not quite ready yet).

And here it is only 8am and I already have my shot of the day, my lazy cat Finn doing his daily birdwatch by the window.

Now off to do some much-needed work on my thesis. Have a lovely day!

orange studies or: project 365

Inspired by Julie and Jaqui I too am now doing Project 365. When I first read about it I thought it was a good idea but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it. I didn’t want to feel pressured to take a photo every single day. I am feeling bad enough about not getting enough work done on my thesis day by day, I didn’t want to add the guilt of not having taken a picture.
I chewed on the idea for quite some time though and it grew on me. I looked through my photo folders and realized I was taking pictures nearly every day anyway! So surely the pressure wouldn’t be too bad, right?
I’ve been doing it a couple of days now and it has been so much more amazing than I imagined! Such an eye-opener, in every sense of the word. Instead of feeling pressured at the end of the day to just take a photo I find I am walking through the world with an open eye for beauty more than ever. I feel I finally SEE.
I had a long day yesterday, travelling 3 hours by car to a business meeting, sitting around there waiting for clients for 6 hours and heading back home. Still, yesterday’s harvest was bright and colourful and lovely and I can’t decide on a favourite at all:



If you’re thinking about doing Project 365 too, go ahead and jump in! You won’t regret it!
By the way, I am planning a major shop update over the next two weeks. I will be adding a bunch of lovely prints and maybe some sewing, so stay tuned 🙂