Revisiting an old FO: My original Clapotis

Clapotis was one of the first projects where I purposely chose a luxury yarn, and knit up every scrap of it, inspired by one of the women in my knitting group at the time, which was the first one I have ever visited frequently. I miss it there, it was supportive and friendly and relaxed and welcoming.

One of the women was knitting Clapotis in Koigu KPPPM, and I loved the way the mottled sock yarn knit up. Just before I left the San Francisco area to move to Japan to teach English for a year (mid 2005), I treated myself to three skeins of Koigu; I think I needed a traveling project. That may well have been my most extravagant yarn purchase to date. (Oh, how the times have changed.) When I finished the knitting I had moved half a world away.

And I never blocked the thing. Four years later and I never blocked it. I like the pattern so much that I've knit three of them since and I'd knit one again. It's a great, simple, entertaining pattern that works with pretty much any yarn.



Over the weekend I was procrastinating over an assignment, wandering around my room and picking things up and putting them away, tidying, when I saw my original clap over the back of a chair. I wear it all the time. I had just had a conversation with a knitting friend where he remarked that it wasn't very big.

It blocked out a treat. It still looks wonderful in terms of wear, matches everything, and was a great investment for three skeins of Koigu. A quick soak, a quick block over the back of the couch on a brightly colored towel, and I got a compliment yesterday from a total nonknitter, and then a second. It looks really nice all blocked out. I'm quite pleased.



I have to try to do this random blocking business a bit more often.

public art

Recently a call went out around the crafty Halifax community for pieces to contribute to a telephone pole cozy for the upcoming crafter's market.

I've been working on a small contribution.



Thanks to RP for giving me some of her scrap yarn. It will look great on that telephone pole.

If you're in the HRM and want to use some of your unwanted yarn to keep this telephone pole warm contribute to some public art, you have until 4 Dec, and contact Hello Pineapples about dropping off your piece(s).

New Twist C

The winter ed of the Twist Collective is up, stunning as always!

A huge congrats goes out to a friend in Vermont, LadySaphira who designed a gorgeous sweater, Cambridge Cables, that made the cover of the issue!!

I am loving Tanit's Jacket, and there's a neat article about what happens when you substitute yarns for this pattern, as well. I like the kettle-dyed option.

Bright Star is also super cute (do we see a cropped jackets theme here? I love them!)

The photography is gorgeous, and there's a really nice variety of winter accessories in there as well. One of these days I'll learn double-knitting.

Ok, back to work!! And hopefully some knitting during study breaks - if I can make it to my month-long goal of 30,000 sts today I'll up the goal to at least 50,000, seeing as today is the midpoint of the month and I'm nearly to my original goal. Yeah, Sunday knitting!

Gauge issues

As I said in my last post, the Bridgewater shawl is flying off my needles.

Earlier this week I reached the widest point of the inner garter square, 205 stitches. [Hee hee BB, I remember when it was only a couple of stitches, too!] I started with 1 st cast on, so at that point I had knit 205 rows, give or take, increasing a st at the start of each row. The beauty of the lacy garter is that gauge is not really a problem so much; I am very relaxed with this knitting and on size 4 needles, the laceweight is very loose. When I got to the apex of the garter square a few days ago, I didn't have time to get the pattern out and find out how I was going to get back down the other side of that mountain.

So I brought a different WIP with me to a class, an unfinished sleeve in simple stockinette, on much smaller needles. And I didn't give any thought to my tension. Here are the results:



Wow. Something tells me I just wouldn't like my Drops Cardigan 97-18 if one sleeve was well fitted and the other a baggy mess starting at the elbow. Ick. Rippit, rippit... Clearly I need to sort of reboot my fingers when I move from a lacy open loose pattern to something more structured.

I put my gauge lesson into practice last weekend. It might be something about the temp outside -- suddenly perfect for a big ole sweatercoat and me with none to be found - but I suddenly had the urge to dig out the special yarn I got for the Tilted Duster (Rav link) out of IK Fall 2007 and at least swatch it properly. [Rav tells me I queued this pattern on 31 July 2007. Woah.] I think I swatched it a long time ago and used size 10 needles, as are called for. I've realized in the last year or so that I tend to need to go down at least one needle size, usually two to start. So I actually swatched on 7s, then 6s, as my gauge on 7s looked too big. After blocking, however, 7s were perfect.



The yarn was custom made at Yarnia in Portland OR, a blend of three grays, a thick alpaca strand, three thin strands of dark gray wool, and a strand of silvery silk. Approximately 50/30/20. I think it's going to rock.

Once the swatch dried you could see the silvery strand much more clearly:



Funny thing was, after that careful swatching and blocking, my hands relaxed again when I cast on - I thought I'd be sensible and do the 40" size so it would fit over a couple of layers and be plenty comfortable - and my first few rows of the back piece came out about 25 inches wide when it should be 20 inches wide.



Even with the inch or so I'd probably lose in blocking, this was coming out WAY too big. I tore it out, considered my options, and knowing that the fabric I'd produced when not giving st st much thought was looser than the lovely dense swatch I'd made, I cast back on with the same 86 sts for the back and focused more on my hands. It still seems a little big, but much better, so I'm going to keep going and see how it comes along. If I can get the gauge right, this is going to be a fast knit, I think.

Probably not fast enough to finish before winter comes for us, though.

WIP: Bridgewater Shawl

I've been getting a lot done on the Bridgewater shawl, especially with class time knitting. In fact, this shawl is the reason my NaKnitMo count is flying; I may have lowballed my capabilities for the month and am considering revising my goal upward.



Earlier this week I reached the widest point of the inner garter square, 205 stitches. Just before I got to the widest point, my first skein ran out, but it was close.



It's kind of hard to get a sense of what this is going to be like; for right now it's just a massive pile of garter stitch. Luckily I have an imagination that includes fabric once blocked, while my classmates who've seen me chugging away at these stitches don't really understand how it will become beautiful in a more defined way.

That's alright.

Rav milestone

Wooooooo I just noticed that Ravelry is poised on the precipice of half a million crafty folk! 499,640 in the community. Amazing, isn't it?

Carry on.

Today's ensemble

Sometimes I get a big kick out of myself when I look down at what I have on and realize that half of it is knitted. Ok, not really half. But a sweater, usually, and then maybe mittens, a scarf, a hat. Today is perfect wool weather. And this is half of what I wore to class this morning:



All wool. And so cozy.

I am also wearing a skirt today. With shiny tights. At some point I'll get around to some legwarmers, and then maybe I really will be able to wear knits from head to toe. And also a matching hat/mitten set wouldn't be a bad idea. I have a bunch of yarn left over from Quincy, so perhaps I'll get going on that.