Le châle est fini.

In other words, La Clapotis is finished.

I liked the shimmer yarn (Knitpicks; Stained Glass Colorway) The finished product is SO VERY SOFT. Huggable. Not much pooling of color at all -- only one area of pink that is visible in the top picture. Doubling the yarn must prevent a lot of the pooling.

I should mention that I used about 1340 yards of shimmer -- this is, of course, about 20 yards more than three skeins. I might have made it in three, except for the dreaded knotting incident, which was solved by removing the knots with scissors. I actually didn't sacrifice too much yarn, so I don't know (???). Three skeins or four? I used US size 8 needles.

Finished clapotis. Note one area of pink pooling. 

Finished Clapotis 

Almost done

I am on the decrease section of the clapotis. She is almost done. Each row that I knit is one stitch shorter than the last, because each row now has a decrease at the end. AND when I drop stitches, I get to drop two rows of stitches at a time. ALMOST DONE.

I've included two photos. One is clapotis in my husband's desk chair -- not that great, but I wanted a dark background on which to spread her out. The second is a stitch detail photo.

I'll take another photo when she is done -- maybe outside in nice light, although the color is pretty true in these photos.

Clapotis stitch detail 

Work so far on clapotis 

Fun at Knit-n-Hook

I went to Knit-n-Hook today -- our local yarn shop -- and had some fun. I bought a skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in columbine blossom -- a nice blue (which isn't listed on their site -- discontinued?), to match this yarn that I had in my stash -- also a Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I'm going to be brave and try to make socks out of this yarn. Wonder if it will work.

I ordered two books from Amazon a week or so ago -- Weekend Knitting and At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. This second book is written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who is the Yarn Harlot. I'm saving both of them for vacation. I did peak in the Weekend Knitting book and found a pattern for a knitted bag. I had leftover yarn from the felted purse that I made with Miss Priss yarn, so I bought some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride wool to match -- in Emerald Fantasy and Blue Flannel -- stripes for the bag.

Both of these projects will be for vacation travel (Yippee!).

I also bought a skien of Mountain Colors Wool quarters in Missouri River Blue. I have no idea what to do with this. A very fun shopping trip!

Molly and my yarn from my shopping spree.

Squiggle Possibilities

Thought I might try using the squiggle for a scarf to wear to church on Pentecost. I’ve tried carrying it with a thin, plain red yarn (I don’t want to dilute the “redness” of the squiggle), and I’ve tried knitting with it alone. Nothing has pleased me. Back in the stash it goes – I’ll try again later.

Finished Object -- Yippee

While Shimmer awaits winding (I did finally get the tangles out of the yarn), I have been working on two other WIPs. I finished (yippee) the diamond block scarf from the Vogue Knitting Scarves book. It turned out nice. It took three skeins of alpaca -- I used a blue American alpaca yarn; 110 yards (1.75 oz). I’m thinking that it would make a nice table runner, so once I block it, I may try it out on the dining room table (who knows?). I’ve also made some progress on the socks that are pictured earlier in this blog. I may actually finish the second one of the pair.

Diamond alpaca scarf, folded. Only one end is visible.

Knots Knots Knots

Steve has gone on retreat with the Emmaus Walk for the weekend. I miss him terribly.

I’m still working on the clapotis, but unlucky for me, the two balls of yarn have become tangled – a mess. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to untangle the nastiness. Just as I was about to see the light of day, figuratively speaking, I ran upstairs to check on the boys, and Molly – our goat-beagle, got a hold of one of the yarn balls. She didn’t do much damage, but she did greatly increase the tanglement of the yarn. ARGH. Clapotis is on hold until I can untangle the yarn, and then I’ll need to wind the next two hanks into balls to use them.

Goodies from Lexington

We took the boys to Lexington for a Family Retreat – meaning that we spent three days together – just the four of us – spending two nights in a hotel, playing with each other. We try to do this each spring break to have some time away from the real world.

One benefit for me was a visit to The Stitch Niche in Lexington – a very nice yarn store. I came away with a pair of US11 Lantern Moon ebony needles. I have no idea what I will do with them, but I like them – they are beautiful. I also bought a ball of red – bright red – squiggle yarn from Crystal Palace. Here, again, I have no idea what I’ll do with it, but it was so RED.

Squiggle and Lantern Moon ebony needles.

She is growing...

La Claptosis is growing. I am now on repeat number five. I was being very careful to click my row counter after I completed each set of repeats in the straight sections until I realized (duh) that I only need to count the ladders of dropped stitches to know how many straight repeats I've done. I have found that this pattern almost counts itself. I am using stitch markers -- yes, I know that I can purl the dropped stitches instead of knitting them and avoid the counters, but I REALLY need these little plastic rings to say, "Here, dummy, ktb here, then k, then ktb." I also think that "reading my knitting" would be more difficult with this Shimmer yarn. It is MUCH thinner than worsted, even doubled, and it doesn't speak as loudly as worsted when you try to read it. I like my markers, even if they do slow me down, and I plan to keep them. They are very well trained in their job, which is to say, "Now NOW NOW. Stop just knitting and do something different!"

I read "Yarn Harlot" this morning, and have added it to my list of blogs to regularly read. Try this one; you'll like it! I must try to find her new book on Amazon.

My next goal with the blog is to try to figure out how to add buttons to the sidebar. I would like to try to join the Knitter's Review blog ring, but I've got to figure this problem out first.

We went to Lexington for a family retreat this past weekend. I'll write about that trip in my next entry. Our adventure did include (for me) a trip to a yarn store and a (yippee) purchase.

Things that make you go hmmmm..

I was playing around with photos again, and posted the picture of our beagle, Molly. I then tried to delete it and go an error message. The post in gone from my list of posts that can be edited, but remains on my blog. Oh, well, meet Molly, our beagle. She is a "goat-dog." I must hide my yarn and needles from her because she will eat them.

I have completed the increase section of the clapotis, and am starting on the straight sections. I have dropped the first stitch. So, I'm moving along.

Three new images

I've posted three new images this evening. The first is one of some impulse yarn that I bought. It is a cotton fleece yarn (80% cotton, 20% wool) put out by Brown Sheep -- handpainted. I just loved the colors in the yarn shop and bought it. I have no idea what I will do with it.

The second photo is of the finished (yea!) felted purse. It felted beautifully! Just wonderful.

The third is of my first attempt at a clapotis. The colors are working well, but in the last increase that I've finished, I'm getting some pooling of the pink. I hope this disappears as I continue with the next increase and on into the straight section. I've joined an email group called Clapotis Knit along 2005 and am getting lots of good info from the group.

Clapotis using Shimmer -- almost done increasing 

Felted purse done! 

Kaleidoscope yarn from Brown Sheep