YOUR Personal Freeform CAL! - Week 4

I damn love this project - because of this wonderful people on this planet 

who are walking this crocheted path with me! 

When I've started this project I wasn't sure if it could work - 

the way of this tutorial is quite unconventional. 

But YOU, Roberta, Jodie, Ulrike, Gwenda & Sandy
(I found out she has a Facebook page, too - weeks after she has joined us!)

have proved that it's possible to do this adventure! 

I'm so proud of you & love your unique styles! For me all of you are REAL artists!

On the following picture you can see some of my crochet works... 

The topic of this exhibition in Germany was "art and catastrophies". 

I did this event with the german artists Anne Laubner & Anne Wende.

I've had several art exhibitions with my crocheting stuff so far 

& I want to encourage you to bring more Freeform Art to your local art exhibitions!

Take your time, show your work to strangers in groups...

(Good friends or relatives will love it anyway!)

Hey, maybe we won't become world famous but we're doing something special 

& there are ways to present your art.

Join your local art club,

show your works to a gallerist,

enter crochet or art competitions!

Maybe you will receive disappointments as well but if you don't try it 

you can never have this overwhelming feeling of presenting your work in public. ;-)

Our project in week 4 has to do with an artist as well:

Vincent van Gogh.

I saw his painting "Starry Night" and thought it could be a nice inspiration for our CAL.

Our Freeform CAL should be personal, my idea was to integrate the fact that all of us are living in different countries & are living different lifes.

But all of us have some similarities:

We love crocheting,

we are all joining an extraordinary art project

& no matter where we live

in the USA, the UK, Australia, Germany or somewhere else:

We are all looking at the same stars.

Maybe you are missing special persons living far away from you?

(I'm a bavarian woman living in Scotland & miss some of my friends & relatives in Germany badly!)

Think about your most missed beloved beings while creating a star to represent this person!

Hey, it's YOUR Personal Freeform CAL!

So let's paint a starry sky with our hooks!

Get yourself your favourite hook size!

Choose your yarn colours for this project!

(For the Van Gogh effects it's fantastic if you have wool with changing colours; 

if not just use several wools at the same time!)

Of course you can also paintcrochet a purple or black night sky with your hookbrush!

I thought it would be the best to start with the moon.

Created it in this way:

Chain stitches with two skeins of yarn;

Next row: slip stitch in the first chain, dc (US: sc), tr (US: dc) until the middle

(roughly - as we are freeforming we shouldn't count to much!),

treble (US: dc) + double treble (US: treble) + tr (US: dc) in the "middle" stitch

go on with tr (US: dc), dc (US: sc) in the last but one chain, slip stitch

Surround the moon with one more row!

Thought it would be the best to create a roughly circle.

I've used white & beige for small brush effects...

Now just crochet around the circle (sometimes you should double a stitch; 

try to feel when it's time for this move - 

the more we improvise, the more we learn to understand the language of our yarn!)

A "stroke of the brush" can be simulated in the easiest way with multicoloured yarn.

Combine blue and white shades by taking to skeins at once or just 

by creating your own multicoloured wool: Knot together different colours!

I would never use fluffy wool for a project based on a pattern

because it's hard to see the loops - for freeform crochet it's ideal:

Special effects no matter if you skip a stitch sometimes!

Created two star circles by using 2 skeins

Small star:

3 ch, dc's (US: sc) in first ch, slip stitch & one more row in blue/white shades

Big star: 4ch, trebles in first chain, slip stitch

Fluff or multicolour around!

Combine the pieces (I've tried to recreate the distance between moon and stars...) 

Maybe not a real Van Gogh but I like it ;-)

Send me pictures of your creations on Facebook or add your project in Ravelry!!!!

Next week I'll prepare a puzzle piece based on the idea of Gwenda!

What do we need badly in our CAL?

Take the chance to share your idea with me & get involved!

Sunny greetings,

Dada Neon