Winter Diamond FO: Sofa Rug, or Shoulder Shrug?

Finished the Ghost Cable Winter Diamond Room Throw today! My design. Fun and easy to knit. I say it again, recycled yarn is a great way to go.

Sofa rug or shoulder shrug?!

It’s a very easy pattern, based on the Lion Brand Baby Love Diagonal Baby Blanket. The center has progressive cable fragments, called “ghost” or “shadow” cables, drifting sinuously to and fro. The many cables pull the square into a long diamond, great as a sofa topper or shoulder cozy in the chill of winter. 

Sofa rug? Shoulder shrug? Your choice. The icy gale shall not prevail! 

Check my Ravelry page for more pics and info on this project.

Finished edging the Origami Hat and Scarf with i-cord . . .

So now on to BSJ, complete with i-cord trim. (But, may *lacivious wink* cast on Seraphim Shawl today . . .)

BSJ Progress

OK, so I’ve been cranking away on the Baby Surprise Jacket but did get just a bit sidetracked by a certain Ariel Scarf I’ve been dallying with. Here is the BSJ at about 35% completion:

BSJ WIP

Really enjoying the EZ classic colors of silver and “lovet” (a deep heather-green). This is gonna be a fast knit and a prelude for the Adult Surprise Jacket. 

Ariel pattern in Filatura di Crosa

 

Ariel in Filatura di Crosa

The Ariel pattern  by Ysolda Original Patterns is beautiful—feminine and undulating— and I think lends itself well to Filatura di Crosa, my favorite mohair yarn. The color: aqua/teal shading into purple/indigo. The weight: fingering, so light project. The feel on the skin: fuzzy and haloed and soft as buttah. To tell the truth I was thinking of knitting up a scarf with it but maybe Ill do that later . . . Right now I may knit two more repeats of the pattern, join the CO and BO rows, pick up stitches, and turn this into a sporty/sexy winter hat for my sporty sexy partner 😀 Will work on that tomorrow if I have time. It’ll really just be an afternoon of knitting to do this.  Maybe this will be the project that gets a thumbs up.

My other offerings have been, shall we say, less than favorably received . . . 😦 The woes of a knitter among muggles . . .

Another project I want to do is a room throw with my new creamy recycled yarn (I found!) that will give me a chance to try out the Shadowed Cable stitches from Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book. 

So much knitting, so little time!

Yarn Score!

Grades finished and turned in! Summer here with a vengeance! Nothing to do for two months but suck popsicles and knit! Heaven!

Now, like many a knitter before me has immoderately professed, I love nice yarn. However, I am not a yarn snob at all. In deed, I am a big fan of acrylic blends and even fun fur (in moderation, of course). Soooo, not wanting to spend much money on undesignated or vaguely-conceived projects, and not much wanting to build up much of a stash, I regularly cruise the recycle shops for hand-knitted sweaters that deserve a new lease on life via recyled yarn. Last week, bingo! Creamy clean white wool (60%) with acrylic (40%) —just enough to give it a bit of shine, bulky, nubby. Huge! (No one in my house is anything like huge . . . if anything, we’re all kind of skinny . . .) Lots of yarn for charity blanket knitting. Also, seams were not serged, so froggable. Snap! Perfect.

I should say that it is now 36 degrees C (97 F) here in Yokohama so this unloved treasure was in the “Free” bin.  Can’t beat that. I should say that this sweater was really knit quite beautifully with very intricate cabling, but as mentioned, huge, and also with a super-ugly immense cowl neck that screamed “I knit this in 1984!”  The effect is “Kilroy was here”—eyes and nose peeking over a large wool wall. Flattering to whom? No one could have worn this without invoking severe fashion police penalties. Do the world a favor and get thee to The Frogpond!

So, I did. Ummm . . should have photographed the sweater before ripping. But, alas, forgot. Remembered after snipping all seams. At least you can see the nicely knitted pieces pre-froggery: 

PreFrogged unseamed

Hauled out the ball winder and vacuum cleaner (lots of little snips and threads!) and spent a pleasant thirty minutes making like Kermit. The result:

Loot of the Yarn Varlot

Were thirty minutes ever more well-spent? Thousands of yen worth of yarn for free. Not to mention the hours of knitting pleasure.