My very own Clapotis!

Posted on | March 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

Clapotis had her debut at the Billy Joel concert on Saturday night – there we are, having a ball! But you probably aren’t here to read about Billy – For more pics of the show & videos, click on over to tadandmel.com.

My little Clapotis would be the first “Official” FO of 2007 – and she’s a winner, thank goodness! Three others to date have met with frustrating ends. For any new readers since the old blog died, the first (unofficial) FO was during the early part of January. It was my first pair of socks. Unfortunately, as I was doing some finish work on one, Sweeter Sweeter Sock Eater (well, I guess you can tell by the name, can’t you?) yes, I apparently left my knitting within reach while she was unattended for a few minutes. No longer than that, I assure you! Once the suspected fate of the sock was confirmed, I knew exactly when it had occurred. And she truely had a window of about 2 minutes. The girl works fast. The moral of the story is that I should have known better (No, this was not the first sock ever to be consumed by the Sweeter, just the first handknit one). My own darn fault of course, and thank goodness she was ok.

The second unofficial FO of 2007 was my Anemoi Mittens. This was my first foray into colorwork and I had so much fun! I really enjoyed knitting them and although I did have a tension issue which made the second mitten come out slightly larger, they blocked out to about the same size and I was so pleased with them, not to mention how much I learned in the process. I never had the opportunity to post about them – they were worn a total of 3 times. I had not had a chance to take the “finished” pictures yet, when they disappeared at work :( This during the same week that the original blog died. BOOO!

So, of course, mel has resolved to be MUCH MORE careful with her knits as there is a sad trend here! It should be noted, however, that this is a totally new trend. Up until this point, I had never had this sort of problem with my knits.

The third project of 2007 involved a sizing debacle which I posted on recently. Itwas necessary to take a break and move on to something “unsized” and quick to knit. I had recently discovered my in-progress Clapotis in a stash drawer – I’m not even sure why this project was left by the wayside. It had been a little over a year since I’d touched it and to be honest, I had forgotten all about it until I was going through my stash. I vowed to come back to it soon and finish it up (little did I know how soon it would be!). After the sizing issue I dug through my stash again to come up with a few options for instant grat knits, and this was the obvious choice since it was already a little over halfway done. The talented Shannon is working on this now too (and taking some gorgeous pics!), and that’s where I learned about purling the stitches that are intended to be dropped – which saved me some time and lost stitch markers. My Clapotis is scarf-sized and perfect for our lovely NC spring weather, and the colors were a great antidote to the knitting blues as well. I’m loving the finished length – it is long enough to hang elegantly to my waist when wrapped once and tied or folded and looped, and also long enough to wrap twice or three times for extra warmth. She’s also long enough for some additional wearing options, which I probably won’t actually use, but I was having fun!

So, the very basic stats – I won’t elaborate as there are a wealth of these beauties and notes about them already out there:

Pattern: Clapotis, of course.

Yarn: Knitpicks Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor, Doubled throughout

Needles: US4

I can see exactly why so many people have made (and loved) this pattern. It is simple and elegant and versatile; enough going on in the pattern to make it fun, but generally a very relaxing knit. The laceweight made this a very lightweight and floaty scarf, but I would love to try it as a real wrap in something more substantial.

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