Well, it's time for this week's free project giveaway. This week the pattern is from Fitted Knits, and it's one of my favorites from the book, the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank. I have been wanting to try this one, but I'm a little scared of the dropped stitches part. I've played around with drop stitches once or twice, but the truth is I still don't fully understand them. I hadn't looked at this pattern for a while, and when I looked through it again, I realized how easy it truly is. It's basically a simple rectangle! That's it. So please, give it a try! I've been thinking about knitting for summer lately (it's just around the bend...right?), and this one would be perfect for it. If you're interested in knitting this tank, make sure to check out who's already knitted it on Ravelry. I found one knitter here.

If you like the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank and the Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug (check out our free knitalong project), then you might think about buying a copy of Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits for yourself. Seriously, there's tons of stuff any gal would like to knit in there.

Speaking of knitalong projects, here's a peak at my progress on the shrug. I hit a bit of a snafu earlier this week as I failed to read the pattern closely. I picked up all my stitches for the main ribbing without first seaming the sleeves. I was talking to a fellow knitalonger at work who was just getting ready to pick up stitches, and I warned her that it was kind of confusing because you had to skip a section. The next day she told me she hadn't found it confusing at all. And that's when I realized I had made it unnecessarily confusing. So last night I ripped out all the picked-up stitches. Now I'm finishing up seaming the sleeves. I'll start over on the ribbing at our weekly lunch knitalong in just a bit.

But here's me trying on my shrug-in-progress. The sleeves seem a bit tight, but I'm hoping that's because I tried the shrug on over my long-sleeved shirt.

How are you doing on your shrug? Post a comment and let us know!

--Jessica