Clapotis

FO Friday: June 12, 2015

FO stands for Finished Object. Since I started blogging, I’ve been posting WIP Wednesdays and posting individual posts for finished objects when I finish one. Many craft bloggers write FO Friday posts, so readers know when to expect posts for finished objects. The FO Friday posts I’ve seen aren’t usually as detailed as the posts I’ve written for my finished objects and they almost always include multiple items.

I have so many blog posts planned that I thought I’d go with FO Friday posts for a while. I’m going to include multiple projects in a single post, but include many of the details that I’ve included in individual post. The “About the Project” section will be shorter. If I have a pattern I want to discuss in greater detail, I’ll write a separate post about it rather than including it in the FO Friday post. I’d like to hear your thoughts on FO Friday posts versus a post per project. Which format do you prefer?

Official Stats

Date Started: March 28, 2015
Date Finished: June 1, 2015
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert (Ravelry, Knitty.com)
Yarn: 872 yards 100purewool Merino Worsted
Needles: U.S. 8 / 5 mm
Finished Dimensions: 22″ x 54″
Made for: ?
Ravelry Project Page

About this Project

Knitty published the Clapotis pattern in 2004. It seems like everyone’s knit it — Ravelry has more than 22,000 project pages for this pattern. I’ve had it on my list of things to knit forever, but never gotten around to it. It’s not a difficult pattern to knit, but as many have noted the middle section seems to go on and on and on. The pattern has three sections: increase section, knit straight, decrease section. The “Knit Straight” section is a 12 row repeat and you are supposed to knit it 13 times. I only knit it 8 times. I tried to knit it 9 times, but ran out of yarn before finishing the decrease section and bind off. In order to knit the entire 13 repeats the pattern prescribes, I would have needed at least one more ball of yarn. The yarn I used is discontinued and the company is out of business. No one on Ravelry had the same yarn in their stash, so I couldn’t try to trade or buy another skein. I didn’t want to rip out the entire project, and it looked like it would be big enough, so I forged ahead. I ripped out the entire completed decrease section (more than 3/4 done) and the 9th straight section repeat so that I could reknit the decrease section and bind off.

Super Secret Shawl

Official Stats

Date Started: April 7, 2015
Date Finished: June 1, 2015
Pattern: Self-designed
Yarn: 880 yards Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Winter Night
Needles: U.S. 4 / 3.5 mm
Finished Dimensions: 23″ x 47″
Made for: Me
Ravelry Project Page

This is my first attempt at designing anything. It’s straightforward — a single stitch pattern and a rectangular shawl. My single biggest snafu was estimating yardage. I measured and weighed the swatch to calculate the yardage I used to knit it. I used that information to calculate final dimensions and yardage for the shawl. These calculations were off by a significant margin. I probably needed another skein of yarn to get the dimensions I wanted. I cannibalized my swatch to get a couple extra inches. I will be doing some research on yardage calculation and trying again!

WIP Wednesday: May 20, 2015

I’m working on three big yardage projects right now, and it feels like I’m making progress on all of them. I love that feeling!

Super Secret Shawl

I’ve finished a total of 9 or 10 repeats of the pattern.

Clapotis

I wanted to finish this project before I went to India, but I ran out of yarn. After I got back from India, I ripped back all the way through my last straight section and put the project back onto the needles. This week I started knitting the decrease section again.

Cat Bed

Pepper spends her nights in my office, to keep her away from the other cats. She’s fragile, they are bigger than her, and I’m afraid they might accidentally hurt her. Her arthritis is bad enough that I don’t think she can get down the steps into the garage to get to the litter box. I’ve left one bottom shelf of my bookcase empty because she likes to sleep in there. I decided to make a felted sleeping pad for that space, to make it a more enticing sleeping spot. I cast on about twice the width of the space and will knit about twice the length. Since it’s just garter stitch, it is going fast. I just cast on last Saturday night and I expect to be done knitting through 500 yards of yarn by tomorrow!

WIP Wednesday: April 1, 2015

No jokes or April Fools here. Just works in progress.

Cormo

As I mentioned in my post about the St. Augustine Spin In, I spun a couple ounces of Cormo at the event. I’m still loving this fiber!

Clapotis

When I got home from the Spin In, I collapsed on the couch and did some knitting. I’ve never knit a clapotis, so cast one on. I was thinking I might bring this to India as travel knitting, but at the rate I’m going, I’ll be done before I leave. I’m in the middle of the 4th repeat on the straight section. I’m almost at the end of my second ball of yarn and I only have 2 more. This means I’m close to halfway through the shawl. I won’t do all 12 repeats of the straight section, but I will get 8 to 9 repeats and that should be fine since I’m a short person!

Master Handknitter Level 1

Today I went through the instructions again and made myself a checklist covering all the tasks that must be completed for Level 1. I am registered to attend the TKGA Conference in San Diego in late July, and I’m hoping that I can finish all of Level 1 before I go. I’d really like to finish by late May or early June so that I can submit and possibly get back my reviewed binder before the conference, but given how much traveling I’m doing over the 6 weeks, it seems unlikely that I’ll be able to do it.

Travel Plans

It is amazing how much work it is to prepare to travel to India! I got 5 shots of immunizations, a series of pills to take for a 6th, plus antimalarial and antidiarrhea prescriptions.

Two of these were for my husband's; the rest of those needles were for me. He'd already had many of the necessary immunizations because of his previous travel. — Two of these were for my husband’s; the rest of those needles were for me. He’d already had many of the necessary immunizations because of his previous travel.

I applied for Global Entry, a program which makes the process of going through customs on the return trip much easier. That program required an interview, so I went and did that. We started applying for the travel visa and realized we needed additional information, so I went about procuring that. I called our credit card, cell phone carrier, and health insurance company to let them know we are traveling and find out if I needed to do anything with them before we left. There’s a lot more, but I can’t remember it all!