WIP: Purple Haze progress

Purple Haze was the third sweater I began during my infamous sweater weekend. I'm making this one for me, using Gedifra 'Cotton Merino'. Unlike the other two sweaters, this one has gone more slowly as I struggled to make sense of the pattern. Don't let that dissuade you from making this though. Lauren Irving is a great new designer. She thinks "out of the box" as they say and subsequently this sweater is just shaped a little differently. Thankfully Lauren patiently responded to my e-mails and helped me step a bit out of my comfort zone. Purple Haze can be made in a variety of sizes - you can mix and match your sizes based on waist & bust measurements. You can choose from 3 different sweater lengths (cropped, hip length, or peplum hem) and choose to add a collar, or not. Mine is going to be hip length with no collar (I think).

So finally I have significant progress to report on PH. The back panel is complete and blocking - as written except for lengthening it by 2 rows, and raising the back neckline. The front panels are complete and blocking as well (in fact I've already seamed the shoulders). In addition to lengthening them by 2 rows, I modified the front panel armhole increases so they would end at the same row as the back panel (I needed that symmetry... sorry Lauren!). The front arm hole increases still start earlier as Lauren intended.

Now for possible buttons.... I bought 3 sets of buttons at the LYS yesterday. The white ones in the middle are pretty but not for this sweater. The petals or flowers are pink - perfect for some yarn in my stash.... The other two sets are possibilities, but neither one is a winner for me yet. Are the pewter ones too ornate for this textured stitch? And although the "black ones" have a pretty purple opalesence in them, are they too stark? Any thoughts?

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I'm currently crocheting the first sleeve and I'm really hoping to make significant progress in the next 3 days, because finished or not this moves to the back burner on January 1st (Robyn's project trumps PH).