Anyone remember a song (now I am seriously dating myself) called “Lazy Sunday” by the Small Faces?

I mention this for no reason except that it is Sunday and I’m hoping it will be a lazy Sunday.

Winners!

We have winners in the Knitcircus giveaway! Gina, Garret, Gerry, Angela, Kate, Anna, Kathom, Jill S, Jane, and Tall Kate have each won a copy of the pattern collection from the Summer 2011 issue of Knitcircus. If you think one of those folks may be you, check your email — I’ve emailed the link to the pattern collection to each of you.

And the two winners of the one-year subscription to KnitCircus are Madonnaearth and Brit. I have sent your email addys to Jaala who will set you up with your subscriptions.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway and thanks to Jaala for making it all possible!

Work in Progress

I am now at almost 600 stitches around on my spiral shawl.

Happy Lucy Day

Eight years ago on Mother’s Day, this purring bundle of fur came to live with me.

Happy Lucy Day!

There was a question the other day about the construction of my current circular shawl — what’s the difference between a pi shawl and a spiral shawl. Good question!

My current shawl is being worked in a spiral construction. It consists of 9 panels and is worked from the center out. I started with 9 stitches — 1 for each panel, and on every other row I increase 1 stitch at one side (always the same side) of the panel. This makes the pattern grow in a spiral.

My Order to Chaos Shawl (hardcopy pattern available from The Loopy Ewe and pdf pattern available from my Ravelry Pattern Store) is a spiral shawl.

The pi shawl construction was created by Elizabeth Zimmermann, it’s name derived from the mathematical principal of pi. To knit a pi shawl, you double the distance between the increase-rounds (in which you double the number of stitches). My Exonumist’s Shawl (hardcopy pattern available from The Loopy Ewe and pdf pattern available from my Ravelry Pattern Store) is a pi shawl.

I also have a free pi shawl pattern available — the Shetland Pi (pattern available on my free patterns page).

Here is a photo of the current state of my current spiral shawl:

It is growing, and each round is taking l-o-n-g-e-r to knit.

My Upcoming Lace Book

I’ve had several questions about my upcoming book, Wendy Knits Lace. One of the questions I often get is if the patterns in the book are ones that have already been published as single patterns. The answer is no — they are all never-before-published patterns with one exception: the Stacy Shawl. The Stacy Shawl had a very limited release as part of a kit in a collaboration with Stacy Little of Tempted Yarns. I did the pattern, she dyed the yarn and made up the kits. So many people asked for the pattern after the kits were gone, I decided that this would be a good place to include it.

The other question — is this a book of shawls? The answer is no, it is not just shawls, but an assortment of lacy knits. There are twenty patterns broken down as follows:

• 7 shawls/scarves/wraps (some with an option to make larger/smaller)
• 3 gloves/mittens/mitts
• 3 socks (one is kneesocks)
• 4 hats/cowls/smoke rings
• 3 sweaters

The difficulty level ranges from beginner to experienced and the yarns from heavy laceweight to heavy worsted.And of course there is an extensive techniques section with step-by-step instructions and illustrations.

There you have it — a little bit of everything.

Lucy sez:

“Not everything — I see no lace kitty toys in that list!”

It’s enough to make a knitter dizzy.

But working on my circular shawl is fun, even though I am increasing 9 stitches with each round I complete. (The shawl is being knit in a spiral construction, and I increase 1 stitch in each of 9 sections.) At this point, I have over 400 stitches around.

When it is done it will be a whopping 738 stitches around.

Yikes.

But it is fun to knit, and the lovely colorway of the yarn keeps it interesting. This is Dream in Color Everlasting Sock and the colorway is called “Surf.” I love Dream in Color — they always manage to achieve a subtle variegation that does not detract from the pattern I am knitting. And the slight change in color makes it entertaining to knit.

Another good thing about knitting a circular shawl — every row is a right-side row, which means no purl rounds here. I knit a lot faster than I purl.

Giveaways Abound

The Random Number Generator has chosen a winner to receive my copy of 60 Quick Baby Knits — it’s Sarah, who has been emailed. Thank you to everyone who left a comment!

Now, I’ve got another giveaway.

Tomorrow (that would be Wednesday, May 4) the Summer 2011 issue of Knitcircus Magazine goes live, and once again I am hosting a giveaway thanks to our wonderful editor-in-chief Jaala.

I’ll be giving away 2 one-year subscriptions to KnitCircus and 10 copies of the complete pattern collection from the Summer 2011 issue to some of my readers, chosen at random from the comments. So, to be entered to win one of these prizes, leave a comment to this blog post by 11:00am EDT on Sunday, May 8, 2011. At that time the winners will be selected.

Facebook

By the way, I have deleted both my and Lucy’s Facebook accounts, just in case you are wondering if we unfriended you. The latest spam attack was the last straw — spam was posted to my friends’ walls, purportedly from me, without me being logged into Facebook (or even at my computer) at the time. So that’s enough for me. The only time I ever spend any time on Facebook is to accept friend requests, so I really did not see any point in keeping my account.

Lucy sez:

“I’m glad my momma is concerned about my online safety!”

It’s hard to believe that it is May already. It seems like it was just January.

I think I’ve overdosed on Royal Wedding coverage. It’s everywhere! Though I did enjoy watching it on Friday. And in Friday’s mail I got a package from my buddy L-B. Inside was this:

And this:

This is limited edition pattern and yarn commemorating the Royal Wedding from Fyberspates in the U.K., still available (as I post this) here. They are beautiful! I can’t decide whether to knit up the yarn or keep it as a souvenir. Thanks, L-B!

Speaking of knitting (which I do a lot here), I have abandoned the shawl-in-progress that I posted about on Thursday. The pattern just wasn’t doing it for me, so I’ve cast it aside and started a circular shawl:

This is being knit from Dream in Color Everlasting in the Surf colorway, on 3.75mm needles. It is a considerably larger project than the triangular shawls I’ve been doing lately so it will take me a while to finish.

Lucy sez:

“Does this mean I get a little break from blocking duties? Yay!”