…otis. Forgive me, knitters. I’m knitting something POPULAR.
It’s not my fault, not really. I had the perfect yarn for it, It’s a semi-lacy project, but something I can work on mindlessly. I know I’ve posted before how I don’t like to follow a crowd, but on the rarest of occasions, masses of knitters can’t be wrong.
It’s a fairly well-aged yarn (from Maryland Sheep and Wool, May 2006), and when I started really considering knitting it, the Banana Split was the only thing that seemed PERFECT. It’s got happy colors, matches my jeans, and is silk and wool. I like the rustic look of the “single” yarn (it’s not really a true single, if you fuss with it, it’s got a few plies, but they’re plied the same direction that they’re spun).
I was also hoping that the Clapotis would do an Ikat type of thing, with stripes of color- knitting on the bias is a great way of lining up the color repeats. These are colors worth repeating. Truly. Whether this happens or not is yet to be determined, I haven’t knit it far enough to see the colors pooling in that pooly way that I love. We will see.
When I bought the yarn, I had initially intended to knit a side-to-side sweater out of it- making the variegations show in vertical lines. This is better. It turns out that I actually finish shawls and wraps, where my sweaters languish in pieces. In boxes. Out of sight. (I still like knitting sweaters, I just need to be a more motivated finisher.)
I’m also wearing my shawls more than I wear my sweaters- my work environment ranges from boiling hot to arctic. Shawls are a stylish solution for this problem. My taste in shawls is more long-term; I just donated half a dozen of the sweaters that I have knitted for myself. Evidently, as a teenager/college student, I was very fond of midriff sweaters. Not so much nowadays. “Look at my flat tummy” isn’t really the message I want to send with my work wardrobe in a [semi-] professional work environment.
The other impetus for starting a Clapotis is the sudden and dramatic onset of winter. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m fairly certain that this is the coldest winter we’ve had so far. I have found myself hunting for scarves, hats, and shawls every morning before I drive to work. Though I have a number of both scarves and hats, I have one scarf and hat that are a matched pair. I am lame for not having the forethought to make more matching hats.
It worked out perfectly- I had five skeins, the pattern for the Clapotis calls for 4, and I believe the matching hat only needs one.
Perfect!
Ahh, another person who loves pooling! I thought I was a lone pervert out there.
ReplyDeleteI like socks for the same reason, you can decrease going down the calf and hold onto some nice pooling action for a couple inches at least, and then find some again somewhere in the instep if you're lucky.
I agree with the colder feeling.
ReplyDeleteI leave in at least 3 or 4 knitted items only to shed them over the day.
And then to reverse the pattern later in the day.