Meltintalle's Closet

Because I wanted to enter my sweater in the county fair I sat down and finished it. (Safety pins are a perfectly acceptable button substitute if you're just so happy you're actually done knitting you want to wear it and not fuss with fiddly bits! :p ) Coordinating buttons proved to be hard to find, so I made some from leftover yarn using the magic loop to start this

http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com/2011/08/simple-crochet-button.html

I'm stingy and used only a 2" to 3" tail; also the center is 9 single crochet. Makes a smaller button, you see.

I put grosgrain ribbon on the button band. It's turquoise because I couldn't find copper and didn't want to go chasing all over the cities looking for something that might not exist.



My sweater and my French braid fingerless gloves ended up entered in two county fairs. The results are... interesting. The gloves got a red both times, which is actually better than I expected because they're a little meh-looking and the yarn has pulled out of shape in a few places. But the sweater got a white at the first fair, which is also better than I expected because of all the flaws I know are in the sweater. And the second time it got a blue because it looks great and the fit is lovely and with the addition of the ribbon on the button band it hangs fabulously in front. So! Sweater judging seems much more subjective than accessory judging.

Dress design for Shabby Apple dresses Dare to Design Contest 2010





The Back Porch dress was inspired by a skirt I saw that had criss-crossing tuck design, like an irregular lattice, as its main feature and romantic paintings of young women reading poetry or sitting on an old swing in an overgrown garden.

It's a dress for exploring new places, a dress for hanging out with friends, a dress for sitting with a cup of tea, a dress for playing with the baby farm animals in.

I can see this dress made up in a lightweight linen or lawn in a variety of colors: from pastels for early spring blossoms to more saturated and vibrant solids for the burst of late spring color.