For today's blog, let's rewind 20 years. Knitters didn't have Ravelry or Instagram yet. Yarn shops had big books to cross-reference all the different yarns to help you substitute for your project. Novelty yarns were in. And all the cool knitters had blogs! People shared what they were making, their musings, and every so often we all seemed to jump on a bandwagon and knit the same thing.
For so many people, that must-have project was Clapotis, designed by Kate Gilbert. Published in Knitty magazine in 2004, it was exciting -- a free pattern for a luxurious wrap with a touch of French elegance and ... what's this? The ability to substitute ANY yarn? Make basically ANY variegated colorway look good? It was, in short, viral knitting magic. There are now nearly 24,000 Clapotis projects on Ravelry, and surely many more that weren't documented.
I knit my first Clapotis in 2006. In grad school, on a limited fellowship budget, I found some super-soft variegated yarn from Knit Picks and was thrilled with the result.
(Sorry for the potato photo quality, but, well, you can see the camera.)
Over the next few years, I moved, worked in a yarn shop (shout out to fibre space!), moved again, and in the meantime knit two more Clapotis scarves. One out of a color-changing sock yarn, and another out of a soft, fancier variegated Merino wool we had at the shop. It was a fun project to knit, and the scarves were easy to throw on and give that effortless, elegant feeling.
Of course, the world of knit design keeps turning, and we knit other things. Hitchhiker. Color Affection. Sockhead Hats. Ranunculus. Pussyhats. Love Note sweaters. Sophie Scarves. Emotional Support Chickens!
Fast forward to earlier this summer, when Amy, the publisher of Knitty, approached a group indie dyers and asked us to recreate Clapotis to celebrate its 20th anniversary. We were delighted to join in!
My 20th Anniversary Clapotis is knit from one skein of DK-weight Yowza in Sans Souci, which has 560 yards. This means I had to modify the pattern slightly. I used a size 7 (4.5mm) needle and worked two fewer increase repeats, so my wrap is 83 stitches wide instead of 107. My wrap is also therefore a little longer than the original.
Now it's your turn. Knit up your own Clapotis - and enter it into Knitty’s Clapotisfest contest to be eligible to win some gorgeous yarn!
Tips and Tricks for your Clapotis:
1. Weigh your yarn at the beginning, and again after you've completed the increase section. Subtract to calculate how much yarn you've used - you'll need this much yarn left at the end to work your decreases.
2. The "Rule of Fifths": to make a wrap with exactly the same proportions as the original AND use all your yarn, you'll want to dedicate 20% (one fifth) of your yarn to the increase section, 60% to the center section, and the last 20% to the decreases.
3. If you're like me and you don't want to deal with so many stitch markers, you can work the column of stitches above the yarn-over (between the twisted stitches) as purl instead of knit. You're dropping this stitch anyway, so it doesn't matter.
4. The designer says not to block your Clapotis to keep the ripples ripply! You're free from blocking!
Whether you knit a Clapotis with the blogging crowd in 2004 or you've never seen it before... try this one. I think you'll like it.
