Friday, October 9, 2009

An Exercise in Patience

I occurred to me that I never followed up on what became of the beautiful Peruvian wool and that pattern, with all its messy notes scratched on it. I wondered if any of you could guess what I was knitting and Alison got it right: the infamous Clapotis from Knitty.com

I knit mine with wool, as opposed to the wool/silk blend the pattern calls for. You see, I fell in love with this color and had to make something with it, and quick. The final product is a bit beefier than it was intended to be but, given New England winters, that's not such a bad thing. The scarf/wrap is pretty, and the long ladders of dropped stitches give it interest. Once I got in the rhythm of the pattern, it was a cinch—or so I thought, until it was almost complete and this happened:
The longest drop-stitch ladder of the entire piece stopped dropping (I am sure there's an official term for this but I don't know it) about halfway down. Right smack-dab in the center of the scarf. After I spat out a few expletives, I reminded myself that knitting is just an evil ploy to exercise our patience, then moved past the glaring error. I'm happy to report I'm over it, and today I wear my Clapotis with cozy pride. (But in the interest of full disclosure, I do still have nightmares about it.)

So knitters, I ask you: have you knit a Clapotis? Do you have any wisdom as to why and how this happened? Where did I go wrong? Is there any way to fix it now?

5 comments:

  1. The Clapoutis is so twisty-turning -- no one will notice the dropped stitch except for you! Love the color....

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  2. Love the colour, knitting the clapoutis has been on my knit someday list, but I'm sorry I can't be of any help as to why that happened.

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  3. It looks like you accidentally jogged your knit column over by one stitch thus making the stitches below that point undroppable. I did it on my first Clapotis too. As to fixing, unless you're willing to cut into your knitting, there isn't really an easy one. It isn't noticeable unless you point it out. I was just going to congratulate you on a pretty Clapotis. :)

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  4. Phoe--thanks for shedding some light! ...and NO,I don't think I'm ready to cut into my knitting (the nightmares might return)!

    Jennifer--put the clapotis on the top of your list. It's so cozy warm, and now that it's snowing like mad, you could really use it!

    Alison--thanks for the kind words

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  5. I adore your knitting and that is a gorgeous color. I am not a knitters and thus i cannot share any view on this. :) Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!

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