Plain Jane Knits Up A Storm

A few musings about my needlecraft hobbies - knitting, crocheting, quilting, & cross-stitch along with my other love, genealogy. While growing up, I used to HATE the term "Plain Jane", but when it comes to knitting & crocheting, I've realized that I really *am* a Plain Jane in that I don't use fancy yarns.

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Location: Northern Detroit Metro area, Michigan, United States

Thursday, February 24, 2005

A Finished Clapotis

As promised, here is the finished Clapotis:



Finished, it measures 22x60" - big enough for a scarf, a shawl or even a disguise:



I was a little disappointed with the drape even after the stitches were dropped. Worked on size 8 needles with worsted weight yarn and knitted to gauge, it seems a bit stiff. I almost think I like the "wrong" side with the soft loops of yarn from the dropped stitches as well or better than the "right" side.



The full sized Clapotis used one 10 ounce skein of the Caron Rainbow Dreams and maybe one fifth of the second skein. With that much yarn left over, I'm thinking about casting on with size 10 or 10.5 needles and seeing if the resulting fabric will drape better. If it does, I may frog this original one and move the knit-along button back up to the "On The Needles" section.

In other news, I've joined a new ring, Circular Needles Knitting Blogs. Given how often I rework patterns to use circular & double pointed needles so I can avoid sewing pieces together, I think this will be a good fit! {g} I also joined another knit-along, the Llama-Along, and added the button to the sidebar. I dug around in my stash this afternoon and came up with three skeins of Love Knit yarn - cream, grey, & royal blue. Love Knit, which unfortunately has been discontinued, is slightly heavier than worsted weight and I was able to get the required gauge with size 9 needles. I have the two earflaps completed using grey for the main color and royal blue for the design, and I've cast on the remaining stitches between the flaps and finished 6 rows. The next row starts the pattern and before I do that, I'm going to review Meg Swenson's article on jogless circular knitting in the Winter 1996 Knitters Magazine

Trying to get photos of knitted items in this house is sometimes problematic. You may notice the feline feet in the first picture holding the Clapotis in place on top of the speaker. However, the cats are not always so helpful. Here's the first shot I made this evening where the knitting is pretty well hidden by a camera hound..

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ahh, but what would life be without the help of a friendly feline or two!

Your Clapotis looks very nice but I'll be interested to see how you feel about the drape produced by the larger needles.

11:18 AM  
Blogger Pioggia said...

Funny, a lot of cats hate the flash, but yours seems to love it. I like your clapotis a lot, but hey, if you're a perfectionist I don't blame you for trying again.

7:03 PM  
Blogger Sharon said...

The finished clapotis looks great, after looking at everybody elses I decided to start one too. Here in Australia worsted is a 10 ply which is hard to get so I am doing mine in 8 ply using smaller needles so I was interested in what you said about the drape, because mine will be different again, I'll let you know what I think when finished. Oh also I love both sides and in the picture I have she is wearing it with the wrong side showing, so there is obviously no right or wrong side. I wouldn't frog it if I was you it is way too good for that :)

8:39 PM  
Blogger Nana Sadie said...

Jane, you've been tagged! Tell us about you and books!
Sallee

8:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi! Your Clapotis is pretty, and I had the same problem with mine. I washed it and laid it out flat to dry on the dining room table, now it's all relaxed and purdy! Good luck on your second!
Your kitty is cute!

9:31 PM  
Blogger Jenny Hassler said...

I ended up liking the purl side of my Clapotis better, though I wear it with which ever side ends up on top when I put it on (and I do wear the thing about once every 10 days - its a neat, neat shawl!!)

6:32 AM  
Blogger Plain Jane said...

I went back and took a look at the two photos of the Clapotis on the Knitty.com site and in both of them, if you look closely, it's being worn with the purl side out. I started a trial run yesterday with size 10.5 needles and the same yarn and it does seem softer although the twisted stitches on either side of the stitch to be dropped seem looser. That may be because I'm purling the dropped stitch instead of using markers.

7:38 AM  

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