First of all, congratulations to WordLily, who is the winner of the giveaway of 60 Quick Baby Blankets: Cute & Cuddly Knits in 220 Superwash® and 128 Superwash® from Cascade Yarns.

Thank you for all the lovely comments about my Rainbow Wrap. I do plan to write up the pattern when I get a chance. I’ve had a busy few days, so no chance to do so.

I have no knitting project to show you. I am working on something but it cannot be revealed. It may or may not be the prototype for a Summer Mystery Shawl.

Instead, I’ll show you what Lucy did all day. I work at home on Wednesdays, so I am able to see what she is up to.

First, she took an after-breakfast nap in her kitty bed.

Then she decided to watch a little tv.

Then she collapsed in front of the book case, clearly worn out from the intellectual strain of television.

But as soon as she felt strong enough, she got back in her kitty bed.

And ended the workday in her rocking chair!

It’s a tough life.

It’s done!

Since my last blog post, I picked up stitches around the edge (almost 1300 of them), and knit an edging. I increased stitches at each corner to make mitered corners.

I did a purl round to make a nice edge for turning, and knit a facing. I decreased stitches at each corner so that the facing would lie flat.

I ran out of black part-way through the facing and rather than break into a new skein, I continued with some leftover rainbow yarn. I think it looks kind of nice.

The wrap is a nice size to wear — here it is on Gwendolyn.

I finished just in time for warm weather.

New Book!

I have received a review copy of another of the “60 Quick Knits” books, this one is 60 Quick Baby Blankets: Cute & Cuddly Knits in 220 Superwash® and 128 Superwash® from Cascade Yarns.

Published by Sixth & Spring Books, it was released last week.

As the title suggests, it contains patterns for 60 quick baby blankets, all knit form Cascade 220 Superwash and Cascade 128 Superwash. 220 is a basic worsted weight wool yarn, and 128 is a bulky weight merino.

The blankets are all just too cute. Many of them are colorwork. Some really easy:

Some harder:

And some rather challenging:

There are also some solid color texture and lace blankets, but there are more multicolored than monochrome.

I love that they included the pattern for the wee lamb that is pictured on the cover:

Everything in the book is just so darn cute. If you have even one or two blankets to make, this is a great value: 60 patterns in the book. Well, 61, if you include the little lamb pattern. They are clearly written and are at varying levels of difficulty so there is very much something for everyone. Many of these blankets could be resized  – they could be made into full-sized afghans.

Who would like my review copy?

To be entered in a drawing to receive my review copy of  60 Quick Baby Blankets: Cute & Cuddly Knits in 220 Superwash® and 128 Superwash® from Cascade Yarns, leave a comment on this blog post by 11:00am Eastern time on Wednesday, April 10, 2013. I’ll choose a comment at random and sent my copy to the commenter.

Lucy sez:

Is that rainbow blanket for me?

Fresh off the needles:

In the photo above, it is a tube. Here it is with the steek cut, laid out flat.

After cutting the steek, I steamed it with an iron. After this steam-blocking the piece measures approximately 74″ by 24″.

Now I am picking up a billion stitches around the outside edge to knit the edging.

And Lucy is being absolutely no help at all!

First off, congratulations to Cathy, who was chosen to receive my review copy of Easy Openwork Knit Tops by Kennita Tully. Cathy has been emailed.

Now, my work in progress:

At this point, it is about 56″ long. I have 60 grams left of the rainbow yarn.

I started out with 284 grams of rainbow yarn, so at this point the end is in sight! Well, not really the end: I will still have lots of edging knitting to do after I finish the body of this piece. But it won’t be too much longer before I finish the body, cut open the steek, and start the edging!

Lucy is waiting for the Easter Bunny  to show up. I don’t want to burst her bubble.

Still knitting my rainbow . . .

But I also have an FO!

A wee catnip mouse, knit from the nose down. It is made from sportweight Cormo wool left over from a cardi I knit earlier in the year. It’s a gift for a co-worker who adopted a kitty last weekend.

I received a review copy of Easy Openwork Knit Tops by Kennita Tully in the mail this past week.

This book contains patterns for 5 projects that are geared towards newer knitters. They all use openwork stitches that are easy to execute and memorize. This book is proof that lace is not necessarily difficult. They all use relatively easy stitch patterns and have simple silhouettes so they would be relatively easy to knit.

And they are pretty. This is my favorite:

Isn’t that a great piece? It’s knit from a DK weight viscose/cotton blend yarn (SMC Select Reflect) so it’s nice and drapey, and the pattern is written for 6 sizes (as are the other 4 patterns in this book) from small to 3XL (chest measurerment 33 — 52″).

The other 4 patterns consist of:

An open lacy vet knit from Habu Textiles Wool Stainless Steel, pictured on the cover — see photo above.

A drop-stitch cardi knit from Berroco Lago:

A twinset knit from Berroco Captiva. The jacket is cropped and lacy.

The tank is plain with some lace detail at the hem.

There is a guide to yarn weights in the back to help you in subbing in different yarns, as well as standard abbreviation and an illustrated section of basics.

Who’d like my review copy?

To be entered in a drawing to receive my review copy of Easy Openwork Knit Tops by Kennita Tully, leave a comment on this blog post by 11:00am Eastern time on Sunday, March 31, 2013. I’ll choose a comment at random and sent my copy to the commenter.

Lucy is waiting for me to declare it dinnertime.