Clapotis - aah

So much better! I found an Excel spreadsheet with stitch counts for every row in the Files of my Clapotis Yahoo! group, and so far, so good. I'm on the second repeat of the expanding section. Now, I just need more stitch markers. Or perhaps I could switch to purling the stitch to be dropped. I wonder if it's OK to change part of the way through. I won't have the opportunity to buy stitch markers until tomorrow.

Ooh, and tomorrow A.C. Moore is having a knitting sale with 25% off everything. The funny thing about the sale is that it's from 11-3. That's a pretty narrow window of opportunity. Now, I don't often buy yarn there, but they do have a few "natural" yarn options. I've used the synthetic Bernat Satin for some baby sweaters with success, since the yarn is machine washable/dryable, but I'm generally a natural fiber girl, which is why I love my LYS - almost all of their yarn is natural and a lot of it is hand-dyed. I have bought some mohair and a skein of Araucana wool at A.C. Moore, so I'll check it out.

I really like the yarn. As I said, the Paris Night color is lovely. Only problem is that it's a single-ply, and my bamboo (Plymouth Sister set - thank you, sweetie, for giving me those a while back) needles are a little splitty at the points. I may have to switch to my Bryspuns, except the Haiku cardigan is on those right now. I guess the moral is to not have two projects on the same size needles at the same time. Since the Clapotis is a gift, the cardie should go on the back burner. I'll swap needles tonight when I get home and get cranking on the shawl.

I can't wait to start dropping stitches and only hope there aren't any problems with the yarn felting. I know that's why people on the Yahoo! group have been discouraged from making a Clapotis with mohair.

So, I did get to knit a little on the train yesterday afternoon, once my laptop battery died. I guess spinning photo CDs is tiring for the ol' 'puter. Hopefully, my car will be ready today. Much as I like the extra time to knit, I'd rather spend more time with my family these days.

Clapotis - argh!

Again, last night at Knit Night I found myself frogging the darn thing. I've downloaded an Excel spreadsheet with stitch counts for every row, and I cast on again today at Knitting Lunch. I finished section one (again!), and seem to have the right count. Now, maybe this will work.

At least I sewed the buttons on my niece's sweater last night. And I'm not at the point on the cardigan where I can separate for the sleeves. The pattern I'm adapting suggests using waste yarn to hold those stitches, but I think the mohair would just make a tangled mess when it's time to pick up the stitches (many moons from now), so I'm going to have to devise some stitch holders. Really big safety pins? Probably

Since I forgot my scissors I couldn't break the yarn on the teddy bear's first ear. I should do that before leaving work, so I can do the second ear and head. Then, of course, there will be more finishing work than I can stand, since I will have two bears ready to sew and stuff.

I'm on the train today, but I think I have work to do this afternoon, so probably not much knitting time. Oh well, at least I had two knitting "events" this week.

Clapotis

Why I can't just make a pattern as prescribed is beyond me. I've decided to jump on the Clappy bandwagon finally and make one out of laceweight yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com in the Paris Night colorway. Of course, the pattern calls for worsted (Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb), but I thought laceweight would make something more delicate and shawl-like. So, I spent a lot of time googling laceweight Clapotis and Handpaintedyarn laceweight, ended up joining a Clapotis Yahoo! Knitalong group, and generally became obsessive. Though not as obsessive as some folks are about Clapotis. Just type that word into your favorite search engine and you will find all sorts of links to people reworking the pattern and getting obsessive about using stitch markers (the pattern calls for 18 - 18!) or purling the stitches that will be dropped later.

Anyway, I've cast on twice. First time with US8, which didn't go too well, then with US6, which went better, but I seem to have lost a stitch somewhere, so I think I'm going to have to frog it and start again. Third time's the charm, right? Right.

Is it wise to have two laceweight projects on the needles at the same time? Probably not, but that's where I am. There will be a future post about the other laceweight project, which I will probably knit forever since I want a knee-length cardigan. Barking mad, I tell you.

But back to the Clapotis. I think it will come out nicely once I get started properly. I will need to get some more stitch markers, but that's fine. They're inexpensive, and something you can sort of never have enough of, since they tend to disappear into the cushions.

The yarn is really nice. Lovely shades of grey. It's the regular wool laceweight as opposed to the Merino, since they had very few color choices in Merino when I placed my order. (Full disclosure: I did buy a skein of black merino - very soft - but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.) So, Paris Night. It's dark grey with shots of light grey every so often. I should probably knit up a gauge swatch to show it off. Especially since I searched obsessively for info and images of the yarn online before buying it in part due to Handpaintedyarn.com's somewhat primitive website, but mostly due to buying yarn without touching it. They are the folks who bring us Malabrigo in shops, so I knew I would be pretty happy with the yarn, but there is always a little trepidation.

In my searches I ended up checking out the forum on Knitter's Review, which had a whole thread on Handpaintedyarn.com, and the Coffeeshop on Knitty, which, of course, has a whole section of threads on Clapotis that led me to the Yahoo! group. Oy. Lots of great resources online for the obsessive knitter.

While searching for all the Handpaintedyarn information I could find, I noticed a dearth of information on their boucle, making it difficult for me to commit to buying some, though it looked so yummy in the Natural colorway on their site. Sort of like the natural color Lumpy Bumpy I've been mooning over at my LYS. I ended up taking the plunge and think the yarn is quite nice. I'll write about that in a future post.

Oh, the other thing about altering the pattern is that I've been wondering about Bob + Weave-ing the finished Clapotis with some pretty ribbon woven through the ladders. Can't tell if that would be too much, but I originally thought of making B + W before going laceweight crazy. Then I had trouble figuring out a yarn substitution for the Artfibers called for in B+W, since they don't seem to make the yarns called for anymore. Plus their site is very annoying to navigate, and they don't seem to have distribution. And that just led me off on the current path.