Aliona - a crochet sweater

A year ago I designed 2 crochet sweaters for a new online crochet magazine, Love Crochet. Unfortunately the Love Crochet venture didn't seem to take off and hasn't published any more issues since the first issue nearly a year ago. So I've decided to selfpublish these patterns. I enjoy designing for crochet. I find it a lot more challenging than designing for knitting, mainly because i'm a much more experienced knitter than I am crocheter. 

 Crocheted garments can sometimes feel quite heavy but with this lacy stitch pattern and the gorgeous Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran the 'Aliona' sweater is light, warm and quick to make. The shaping is easy as the stitches for the sleeves are added at the underarm. The whole sweater is only worked in 2 pieces minimising the sewing up needed. 

 My favourite part of this sweater is the big split cowl collar. I machine knitted a sweater for myself last year which has the same collar and I just love it.

 The sweater has a trendy silhouette with 3/4 length sleeves making it perfect for layering.

 The beautiful photography is by Kat Goldin who as well as being a great photographer (you'll see more of her photographs soon) is also a crochet and knit designer. It's great having another designer photographing your designs as they know the kind of shots you want and how to make knit and crochet look its best. I'm hoping to be able to work with Kat a lot more in the future.

The pattern is currently available for pre-order and the pattern will be available next week. It's currently being tech-edited by Joanne Scrace who is also a knit and crochet designer. By the way, Kat & Joanne are working on something very exciting for 2013. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what yet but I'm very excited about it and I'm involved in it too.

'Aliona' was crocheted by Leni, aka The Fluffy Viking, who as well as being a fantastic sample knitter is also great at crochet.