Sinful.

I finished the main section of the Slippery Beast and it's now 80% finished - "a good time to take a breather" I told myself. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just think about another project. A little project. A quickie. After all, I've been faithful to the Beast, with its stockinette sameness, for a long, long time. Would it be so bad to spice things up, just once? Then I would go dutifully back to the Beast, finish it, and forget my little dalliance ever happened.

So I started down the slippery slope. I picked up a book, Knit 2 Together by Tracy Ullman and Mel Clark. I must confess I had previously judged this book by its cover. I bought for Loops but never opened it. The silly photo of Tracy and Mel wearing a single giant sweater with two sleeves led me to believe it couldn't possibly have great patterns. I was so wrong! Please forgive me, hilarious Englishwoman and brilliant yarn store owner! I'm now jonesing to make at least five patterns in here.

The lacy "Hug Me Tight" would be stunning in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK:

The "Medicine Bag" in Manos (we have a huge rainbow of Manos colors) - how cool is this? I could cram in a sweater project, a little project and still have room for my daughter's plastic crap:

Love love love this little suit in merino. Would be perfect in Muench Bel Air or Berroco Pure Merino:

And the sweetest tablecloth in Euroflax Linen Sport - we have tons of this! Looks like it came right out of Anthropologie, no?

But none of these would qualify as a "dalliance." These are all more like Long Term Significant Others. So then I found the Sinful Neckwarmer:

Literally, it's made from Sinful, a 100% cashmere chunky weight from Classic Elite. Size 10 needles, quick and easy feather and fan pattern. Just the little sin I was looking for. This is only one hour's work while sitting at the pool w/the kids:

I love the Classic Elite luxury yarns. They let me order as little as one skein at a time, and they ship super-quick. So if you're looking for your own little Sinful, click on this link for the color card and e-mail the store or call (918) 742-YARN and we'll special order it for you. The project takes two skeins. I will warn you, it is pricy. If you're feeling slightly less sinful, this would also work up great in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky, which is available in our online store.

Now here's your bonus for reading this far: I found new free patterns on the Classic Elite site. And they also have these free luxury yarn patterns you can preview - and you get them when you buy any Classic Elite luxury yarn through us. We have many of these yarns in stock and again, we can special order anytime.

- Shelley
shop online at loopsknitting.com