First off, the pattern for Two-Step and Tango is now available for sale in my Ravelry shop.

So what do I have on the needles now?

It’s still lace, but it is not a shawl or scarf. I’m knitting a lace sweater for a change. I’m using Hand Maiden Swiss Silk (a 100% silk fingering weight) in the “Cedar” colorway, and I’m knitting on a U.S. size 6 (4 mm) needle.

This will be a loose-fitting top with drop shoulders and long sleeves, designed to be worn over a sleeveless dress or cami. I’m planning on doing a v-neck, and a three-needle bind-off for the shoulders. The sleeves will be knit from the bottom up and I’ll pick up stitches along the edge of the body and do a three-needle bind-off to attach the sleeves as well.

This is a very soft yarn, and the sweater will definitely benefit from the structure and strength that the bound-off seams will give. It is a lovely yarn to knit as well.

I got my yarn for my second Camp Loopy project today — see?

This is Madelinetosh DK in the “Kelp” colorway. The challenge is to knit socks or mittens or gloves with cables. I will be knitting cabled mittens, but we can’t start until July 15. I won’t be done with the sweater by then, but the mittens will make nice commuter knitting for a while.

Winners!

A huge thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for copies of my upcoming book. I invoked the Random Number Generator and it selected Sally (aka angoraspinner) and Lisa from W Mass to receive the books. I’ve emailed you both.

Speaking of my upcoming book, it will be coming out in e-book format at the same time as the print version and should be available for all devices and at all e-tailers.

Yarn U

Last week I was given the opportunity to try out a knitting-related iPhone/iPad app — Yarn U. This is a database of yarns (there are over 170 yarns in the database with more being added). There are descriptions and detailed reviews for each of the yarns, lots of lovely full-color photos, links to yarn websites, purchasing options, videos, and patterns, and many user comments.

Lots of good information for the knitter who is looking for a yarn for a project and would like some detailed inf0rmation and opinions about the different yarns he/she is considering.

Lucy Sez

“When are we gonna block again, Momma? I’m ready!”

I finished the Tango Shawlette Sunday afternoon. Lucy was on duty for the photo-shoot.

This measures 54″ along the top edge, 60″ along the bottom edge, and 10.5″ down the center back. (The Two-Step Scarf has the same measurements for length, but is only 7.5″ down the center back.) You could easily make this shawlette deeper down the center back if you had more yarn. The pattern describes how to do this.

Tango took approximately 350 yards of Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino and was knit using a U.S. size 5 (3.75mm) needle.

The two-fer pattern for this and the Two-Step Scarf will be available very soon!

Lucy hopes that you all had a relaxing weekend. Evidence that she certainly did:

It makes me extremely happy to see how many of you are looking forward to the release of Wendy Knits Lace next month. And it also makes me happy to hear from those of  you who said that your first lace experience was my Summer Mystery Shawl and you are looking forward to more lace. I’m always happy to suck more lace knitters into the fold. (Insert evil laughter here.)

And hey — guess what? Potter Craft sent me two copies of Wendy Knits Lace instead of just one, so I will give both of them away in the drawing on Thursday!

They also sent back all the knitted samples from the book. Here they are:

Oh, sorry — I haven’t unpacked them yet.

On to current knitting.

I finished the unbloggable project I was working on so started in on the larger version of the shawlette/scarf thingie I showed in the last blog post. Here it is:

This is being knit from Three Irish Girls’ Glenhaven Cashmerino Fingering, which I purchased from The Loopy Ewe. This yummy yarn is 80% Merino Wool, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Nylon and is wonderfully soft. This colorway is called “Strawberry Fields Forever. I’m using the same needle size as I did for the shawlette/scarf thingie — a U.S. size 5 (3.75mm).

I will be calling this pattern “Tango.” The little shawlette/scarf thingie is being called “Two-Step” so the pattern that will include instructions for both of them will be called “Two-Step and Tango.”

See what I did there?

Lucy sez:

“Will someone throw my paper ball for me?”