WIP Wednesday (Clapotis!) and FOs, too!

Yep, I'm finally making a Clapotis. I've only wanted to make one of these puppies since...well, since I first started knitting. ;-) It sat in my Ravelry queue forever. I was scared by its seemingly complicated instructions and unsure of what yarn to use.

I eventually decided to use my Wool in the Woods Cameo, which I've had in the stash for even longer than I've wanted to make the Clapotis! It's a DK-weight rayon yarn. I'd originally purchased it with a plan of crocheting a sweater with it (in hindsight, a sweater made with this yarn would've been more of a blouse, but whatever), so I have a large quantity. This means I won't have to worry about running out of yarn for the Clapotis, which uses quite a bit of yarn. The original Clapotis pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles, and I'm using 7s since that's what's recommended for the yarn, so mine will be a bit smaller but I don't mind that at all.

Here she is:

The colorway is called Jackpot. It's a little more purple and a little less dark than this picture suggests. The dropped stitches, which make the Clapotis so open and airy, will be incorporated later. (See where those holes are (from yarnovers)? That's where the dropped stitches will eventually go down to. Neat, eh?)

I started working on this with some trepidation - after all, the instructions were long and I didn't know how to knit or purl through the back loop. I found spreadsheets to help me with the pattern but they were long too and quite intimidating. I finally settled on the spreadsheet with the most color, since we have a color printer and I like color-coded things.

And you know what? Much like other things I've knitted, it's not nearly as complicated as I'd thought it would be. Lots of repetition, which is OK by me since I don't like to have to look at a pattern every 5 seconds. I learned how to knit and purl through the back loops from one of the books I have, and it's not hard.

By the way, you could knit this on straight needles, and a lot of people probably do. I just don't like straight needles much (in fact, I despise the longer ones) so I am using my trusty circulars.

Also, lots of people advise to purl the stitches to be dropped instead of using stitch markers. However, when I started the pattern, I didn't have a clue which stitches would be dropped or how that would work. Now I know, but I've already started with the stitch markers and I love using my handmade ones. The butterflies and flowers look so sweet with the colors of the yarn! You have to use a total of 18 stitch markers for this, but of course I have plenty. :-)

Now on to those FOs! Unfortunately, I can only go into detail about one right now, because the other one is a secret. (Shhh!) The one I can discuss here is, of course, the Croeso! Drumroll please...

On the blocking board! This thing was really hard to pin out. I wet blocked it with some Soak wash and then used literally all of my T-pins on it.

 Hangin' out on the couch.

 Outside, by our favorite tree.

 

 Front view.

Back view with my hair out of the way so you can see the branching cables.

I am so pleased with this. I especially love how the green yarn looks on the last few rows - what a gorgeous border that turned out to be! I am almost glad I ran out of yarn! Many thanks to a dear friend (you know who you are! Love you!) for the green yarn.

I am thinking about adding a small button to the front of this because it doesn't have a long enough wingspan to use a shawl pin without my wrapping the shawlette around my neck, and I can't do that because of my wool allergy. Also, I don't want it to be wrinkled up at all - I want to show off the whole darn thing when I wear it!

Measurements turned out to be: 41" wingspan and 21" from top to bottom at lowest point. The one gripe I have about this pattern is that no finished measurements or gauge were given, so I had no idea how big it would turn out to be. The finished size of mine is a little unwieldy. It is so beautiful, though! I'm really proud of it, in case you couldn't tell!

I will post about my other FO once I am sure it has been received. Rest assured that lots of pictures were taken.