Me and My Clapotis

Dee at Posh Yarn asked a very interesting question today, on her blog. She asked us to tell her what knitting project we enjoyed the most.

I was going to answer in her comments, but it all got a little too long and involved so I'm replying here, and hoping that she's got trackbacks enabled. Anyway, if you haven't read her post yet, then feel free to go do that now. The rest of this post will be waiting when you get back :)

I had a bit of a think about this, but in the end, there was really no other answer.

My absolute favourite knitting project has to be my Sari Silk Clapotis.

To be honest, I think that the Clapotis might be my favourite pattern to knit, ever, since I've knitted at least three of the things, but the sari silk one was the first, and remains my favourite.

It all came about when, late on one Friday afternoon, I was very bored at work and decided to have a look on eBay for some yarn. In doing so, I found a seller selling cones of sari silk yarn, and she had three left. I immediately bought and paid for them and didn't think much about it.

Until the next morning, when the ringing of the doorbell at 8am woke me. After I'd gotten a bit decent and stumbled downstairs I discovered it was the postman, with a package for me - the sari silk yarn.

Now, I was doubly lucky with that purchase, because not only did it arrive incredibly promptly, but it was also pretty much the best sari silk yarn I've ever touched.

It was so lustrous, soft and beautiful that although it was in the kind of colours I'd never previously have considered (at that point I was very much an "all black" kind of girl), it just screamed at me that it wanted to be knit with immediately, and that it wanted to be a Clapotis.

So that's exactly what I did.

A wee bit of pattern modification and a lot of hoping I didn't run out of yarn, and not long after I had a sari silk Clapotis, with barely three yards of sari silk left.

I loved it so much that I immediately cast on another one, this time in Debbie Bliss Cathay in purple (which was frogged at some point before it had a chance to realise it's full potential).

I then cast on another one, this time in white mercerised cotton, which I was going to wear to a wedding, but I didn't finish it in time, so it found a new purpose and home with Vanessa of Coloursknits as part of the first secret pal swap I participated in.

Later on, after seeing the picture of me wearing my Clapotis, my friend Lori fell under the spell of the Clapotis and asked me to make her one, and after a few false starts, that's exactly what I did. Five balls of Silk Garden later, and she had a full-size Clapotis all of her own, and I still look back and smile at the photos of Lori's Clapotis, my first seriously big knitting project made for someone else.

I've since started and changed my mind on making several other Clapotis', perhaps because I was worried I'd turn into a bit of a knitting one-trick pony, but really, there's no other pattern that's bewitched me quite like this one.

I've thought about it a big, and tried to pin down what it is about it that I like so much, and all I can think of is that it's ingeniously simple to knit (it punches way over it's weight in terms of effect vs effort), and it's got enough interest to keep you going even when it's starting to get boring (those drop stitches are so much fun), and there's so much potential for different looks and feels depending on which yarn you use. I've seen them made from about every kind of yarn, and they're all stunning. Not to mention, that when you wear one out, even the non-knitters ask where you got your scarf. On one memorable occasion, I brought the yarn department in Liberty to a standstill because all the staff were fascinated by it and were calling people from other departments over to show it off.

Y'know what though? All this thinking about Clapotis has made me think that maybe it's time to knit another one.

Have Hook, Will Travel

This week has been a week of almost perpetual motion.

On Tuesday I went from London to Perth (the one in Scotland, not the Australian one) so that I could be in Perth rested and ready to do a day's training with a really lovely group of people on Wednesday.

Then on Thursday, I did the journey in reverse.

Six hours each way on the train, not counting time either end getting to and from home/work/hotel made for an exhausting time. Coupled with having to work on the train, meant that the poor cake of my tequila sunrise hand-dyed handspun was sadly neglected, and came home the same way it went up, along with the 4 balls of Louisa Harding kimono angora, and mostly super secret skein of other stuff I'm doing for someone else (although I did manage to do some work on that in the hotel, before I conked out from exhaustion (training all day is hard work, especially when you're the trainer).

So nothing much to show off this week, which is a shame, because I've got lots of things I want to do (and clearly, either an over-developed sense of what I can get done when I travel, or a panic that I'll run out of yarn and be projectless) and other stuff I can't show off quite yet.

It's not even like I'll be able to do anything this weekend, unless I manage to get over my travel sickness enough to crochet in the car (I'm on a bit of a crochet trip right now), because I'm off to see my sister, brother-in-law and adorable niece.

Ally Pally

Two years ago (about six months into my newly acquired knitting addiction) on a whim, I decided to volunteer to help out at the Knit and Relax stand at the Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally) Knitting and Stitching show.

I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

I spent the best part of four days crocheting and finger knitting, and teaching other people to crochet and finger knit (I think I maxed out at 15 people at once) and quite literally reveling in the absolute joy of being amongst people who understood my urges to stroke yarn, in a place filled with more yarn and other fibery things than I'd ever seen in my life.

Last year I went for one day, and came home exhausted and energised again.

This year I went for only one day again and I had both a plan, and a man, in tow.

Rather than making faces, and shooing me off in the direction of North London with instructions not to break the bank manager's heart, my lovely boyfriend braved the eostragen overload and came with me. He even helped with the plan.

The plan was to meet Nikki and her boyfriend, go round the show, look at the wares, take note of amounts and costs and then, when I'd seen everything, calculate what I wanted to get and go get it.

It worked pretty well, for a couple of hours... we walked round, K took notes, I learned to felt and card, we walked round some more, then we got to a certain stand and I had a rather major falling down in the plan department.

After the major falling down, I went next door to the Fyberspates stand and had another falling down, this time in the silk hankie department. It was only a little one - 50g of silk hankies, spread across three colourways.

I managed to get hold of myself long enough to make it to the Knit and Relax stand where it was wonderful to catch up with Sue, Jane and Yvonne, who I haven't seen in a long time. It was also nice to have a quick chat with Mary-Lou and meet her other daughter (the one that *doesn't* think my boyfriend has a cute bum) and Gaz from the UK Handknitters Yahoo group (and his wonderful spindle).

With only an hour to go (and having lost the boys to the bar) Nikki and I did a quick trawl through the last half of the great hall, and at the end of the day, I headed back to the place I had my major falling down, and fell down again there, and at Fyberspates again, where I fell hard for a braid of 55% blue-faced leicester/45% silk fiber in berry colours (with a little hint of cream here and there).

I literally can't wait to show off everything I got, but the rest will have to wait, because it's for a super secret project and the time isn't quite right to reveal all.

In the meantime though, enjoy the fiber porn above :)

Tea Scarf

Since coming back from Crete, the days have got colder and more wintry, so I turned my red merino handspun yarn into a crocheted scarf.

It's about 4 inches wide and long enough to double wrap and pull through, and it's so snuggly soft it's like my neck is wrapped in a hug.

With this scarf, and the powers of rooibos tea, I'm sure I can keep the autumn chills at bay.

Recipe for a Tea Scarf

approx 200yds soft fluffy worsted weight yarn 7mm crochet hook

Row 1: chain(ch) 140 Row 2: ch3 for turning chain, then double crochet (DC) (UK: triple crochet (TR)) in each base chain. Rows 3-5: ch3 for turning chain, DC(TR) in each chain Frilly border: ch3 for turning chain, ch1, DC(TR) in (same) turning ch, *DC(TR), ch1, DC(TR); repeat from * in each chain around the entire scarf, ending where you began.

Finishing: weave in ends.

Wear with pride. Tea drinking optional, but I can heartily recommend trying Rooibos Tea.

Handspun On Holiday

About a year ago now, I went to the Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow and bought some dye to play with.

After playing with some merino, I dug out some combed Wensleydale and experimented with reds, browns and yellows, aiming for autumnal colours.

After sitting, unspun and unloved for nearly a year, I found it again, spun it up, and was utterly entranced by the result.

The Wensleydale spun like a dream, and I've got a fairly consistent fingering weight single, which I took on holiday to Crete with me, intending to knit something with it.

Turns out it's very particular yarn, because it hasn't wanted to be either the scarf I started knitting or the scarf I started crocheting, and instead it was the most happy sunning itself and looking like a ripe, juicy peach on the edge of the balcony, looking over the swimming pool and sea.

Rainbow Roving

Although I packed yarn to go on holiday to Crete, I didn't expect to pack yarn to come back with from Crete.

Then I spotted an ad for a craft shop in Chania, and in the corner of the add, I thought I saw some fibre.

So I did what any other fibreholic would do, I tracked down the place and went to see if I was right.

Turns out I was, and there were large piles of merino roving right inside the door, alongside some felted hats.

Inside, there was more merino roving, some horrible nasty wool fibre for felting and this stuff, in this and four other shades.

After finding out the price from the lovely, but slightly confused shopkeeper (who had bought the fibre for felting, and had trouble understanding me trying to explain spinning), I decided that I'd buy 200g from the (large and messy) nest I had in my hands.

Once I'd wound off and weighed 200g, there was only a small bundle left, so I weighed that too, and finding that it was around 85g, decided to buy that too.

And the entire bundle (approx 300g) of the other colourway I liked (forest greens and browns, very subtle and lovely).

At which point the shopkeeper's face fell, and he slightly jokingly (but slightly not jokingly) complained that I was buying his whole stock.

Well how was I to know he didn't have more in the stock room?

I didn't back down though, that fibre was mine, especially when I realised it was the same range of roving as the stuff my knitty swap partner had sent me, which became the first yarn I've spun this year!

I did go back a couple of days later with said yarn, since I'd taken it with me intending to knit it into a scarf, then promptly left the pattern at home in the mad panic to get everything packed.

I think he finally understood, but I suspect I'll be remembered as "that crazy British girl who bought all my stock".

Worth it though. This stuff is fabulous, and the two small balls shown in the picture above have already been turned into laceweight singles, to eventually become sock yarn.

Ravelry Swap Goodies

It took it's own sweet time to get here, but I finally got my parcel from the Ravelry fiber and sock swap.

Heather from SnerKnits sent me a lovely parcel all the way from Canada containing some bright citrusy superwash merino sock yarn, some merino/possum blend roving and some merino/tencel roving from etsy seller CopperPot, and if that wasn't enough, she also included some fabulous stitch markers, the kind that I've been lusting after on etsy.

The merino/tencel blend is so lovely that I've already started spinning it, and it's just amazingly soft and it's spinning like a dream.

Thanks Heather!

Sockapalooza Too

I was so late finishing my sockapalooza socks that I completely forgot to take photos of the finished pair before sending them across the world to Australia and the lovely Rose Red, who, with her love of reds and shoes could be a long lost soul sister.

I had great fun reading her blog and finding out about her, and as I did last year, I decided that none of the sock patterns I knew about would do the trick, and set about designing a pair of socks for her.

Using Colinette Jitterbug (purchased from I Knit London I followed the basic toe up with heel flap recipe given in Widdershins from last summer's Knittyand began to make my modifications.

A subtle eyelet line along the sides of the foot and continuing up the leg, joined by another subtle eyelet line from the heel up, and an arrow lace pattern up the back of the leg (for some reason, I couldn't get the image of seamed stockings out of my head when thinking about socks for her), topped off with a picot cuff.

Lovely.

I'm very proud of these, and delighted that she likes them and they fit (always a worry when knitting for other people who you can't make try on things).

They look fabulous on her too.

A job well done, I think.

Sockapalooza

It's been an eventful few weeks, which is why I'm so chronically late posting about my sockapalooza goodies.

I actually got these socks at the same time as I got the package I posted about previously, but when I emailed my pal to say they'd arrived, I told her I was just about to get a new camera, and that I couldn't think of a better way to christen the new camera than by taking photos of the stuff she sent.

Only, at that point, I didn't know it'd take a few days longer to get the camera than I was expecting, or that I'd then run out of time to actually write the blog post in my rush to get things organised before heading off to Crete for two weeks, or that I'd come back from Crete with an ill boyfriend and wind up ill myself while attending a wedding up North.

Anyway, the lovely Amanda from Bulldog Knits made me these beautiful diamond lace socks, and more than that, she inclulded a calendar from her home state, some Ranch Dressing mix (I got addicted when I went to Texas in March) and some truly fabulous sock yarn.

The socks fit perfectly and are really soft.

Thanks Amanda!

Pretty Skeins All In A Row

I've been hearing about Yarn Yard quite a lot lately, and finally succumbed to curiosity and went to check out the site.

Before I knew what happened, four skeins of pencil roving were wending their way to me, all ready for spinning up into (what I hope will be) sock yarn.

The picture doesn't even come close to getting across just how soft and squishy these are, or the depth (and subtlety) of the colours.

There's one varigated in shades of yellow/pale green/pale brown and sky blue/teal, one solid turquoisey/teal/blue, one solid pale green (not ordinarily my kind of colour at all but this just grabbed me, and one solid bright pink/cerise.

What I can't decide is whether I should mix and match, or try and make a pair of socks out of each skein of roving.

What I do know is that I'm really going to need to hope the birthday fairy brings me more bobbins on Friday.