I finished my Diamonds on the Diagonal Scarf, and when I laid out my towel to take a picture of it Stella sat down and would not budge... I I had to take a picture of the scarf on Stella. She cooperated for once and I really like the photo! She almost looks like a statue. Very cute.
The scarf was a really quick knit. Only took me three days. I forgot to weigh the yarn before I began, I wanted to use up all the yarn in this project, so if I had weighed it I would have known exactly when to switch the direction of the diagonal lines and then used up maximum yardage. But because I forgot to weigh the skein and I didn't totally trust the weight given on the label, I opted on the conservative side and ended up with 12g of yarn left in the end. I could have done 1 more repeat in each direction, I'm a little ticked about that, but I'll deal. The next time I knit this scarf I'll know to weigh the yarn first. I'm still planning on dyeing the whole thing a light/bright shade of orange to cover up the unsightly white blotches while keeping the darker orange and red tones. But I don't have any immediate plans for when that will happen yet. It's 3o degrees here today! I have no urgent need for a scarf!
As soon as I finished the Diamonds on the diagonal scarf I was struck by the need to cast on the Gathered Pullover. I saw this great finished project over on the Team Knit blog, had yarn in my stash that I've been itching to use, felt that the pattern and yarn were compatible, and the rest is history! Here's where I'm at so far:
The body is knit in the round, so it's an entire body and two top fronts in 2 days of knitting. This is shaping up to be the fastest knit ever! I'm really happy with it so far. The pattern is great and the yarn I'm using (Elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca Worsted in Hyacinth Heather) is sooo soft and gorgeous. I know that purple isn't for everyone, but I love this shade. It has bits of pink and teal that occasionally pop up upon closer inspection. It's really lovely, and did I mention sooo soft! It's not the sport weight yarn that was recommended in the pattern, but I've seen that others have knit this sweater in worsted with good results, so since I got gauge I'm going to hope all works out. The bottom is curling WAY too much though, so I think I'll end up turning it under to make a hem rather then just letting it do it's thing. The way it is now it's a bit ridiculous. Tonight I hope to finish the back, then work on the sleeves, and hopefully I'll have a sweater by the end of the week! Fastest sweater ever! And so far, I think it might be in the running for the award of favorite sweater ever too!