The legendary Clapotis
When I started knitting, almost a year ago, I started reading a lot of knitting blogs and forums. Because I’m obsessive that way. And I kept seeing all of these references to something called “Clapotis”. Clapotis this, Clapotis that — it sounded like some kind of disease. And not a very nice one, either.
But as I eventually realized, it’s actually a knitting pattern, for a scarf/shawl hybrid. “Ho hum,” I thought, and went on with life.
But then, I started spending a lot of time browsing Flickr. And I saw Clapotis after Clapotis, and they were all so darned gorgeous that I started to want to knit one.
One day I had an extra ball of yarn sitting around, and I thought “hmm, let’s just play around with it a bit to see what a Clapotis would look like with this yarn.” I started knitting, and then I was hooked. This was a mini-Clapotis, a little scarf that I finished quickly, but it just made me want to knit the full-size Clapotis more.
I tried it in one yarn, and I didn’t like the way that was going, so eventually I resorted to the yarn the pattern calls for: Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb in the gorgeous (and… very pink) Bittersweet colorway. 19 days later… a Clapotis! You can see in the picture here that it’s a pretty big scarf. It’s almost as long as I am tall, and it is very wide. It makes a nice warm shawl, but also a nice scarf, all wavy-like.
So now the Clapotis is done and I am free, free from the Clapotis Compulsion (only a year after the rest of the net knitters, but hey, I only started knitting less than a year ago). No more wraps and scarves since summer is coming! But then I see this… and this… uh, I might be doomed again.
(Technical info for the knitters in the crowd: almost 3 full skeins of Lion & Lamb, knitted flat on US9 circular needles from the Boye Needlemaster set, pattern altered by leaving out one of the straight section repeats but otherwise exactly as written.)
That’s really beautiful. Good work!
There’s a pattern in the second Stitch and Bitch book for a vest in a similar pattern, although it’s not knit on the bias. Is this something like what you have done here? I have to admit I can’t even begin to understand the Knitty pattern for the original scarf.
Yes, it’s the same idea — just dropping stitches intentionally. The Knitty pattern is actually really easy! It just looks complicated at first glance because every single line is written out. But it’s totally easy. Being on the bias isn’t hard — you just increase at the end of one row and decrease at the end of the next, and that makes your fabric go diagonally. The reverse sides are all plain purling, the front side is all knits, it’s just that some are knitted through the back loop. (The ktbls are surrounding the drop stitches so that the stitches don’t slip around after the drops happen.) It’s amazingly easy. And you start with only 2 stitches cast on, IIRC, so even getting started is quick. Go for it — it keeps you warm when sitting in an ice rink. 😉
Damn you have mad knitting skills. You must have mad finger power.
Nah, I am a sloooooow knitter. But thanks. 🙂
I *just* ordered the LL yarn for this from my LYS. I ordered it in colorway Asian, and I’m hoping that it comes out just “buh!” like yours did.
I can’t WAIT to get going on it.
The LL yarn is so gorgeous. You’ll enjoy knitting this, I think.
Thanks for clearing up my own clapotis confusion. I have been hearing the term for a while and for the life of me could not figure out what a clapotis was. So thanks for letting me know! Your clapotis is just lovely and I am very envious, I particularly like the color. I may just have to knit my own! It is SO pretty!
I have been wanting to try one because they are so gorgeous, but the pattern looked hard. Thank you for giving me the courage to try it! I’ll let you know how it goes!