Archive for the ‘Pattern Review’ Category
Social Knitworking Knits The Clap
Posted by Nysssa in Pattern Review, Site News, Things We Do on January 17th, 2010
Posted by: Nysssa
Many of us have at least one clap under our belts, and decided that another one, plus some friendly peer pressure for those of us who hadn’t made one yet, would be in order.
The Clap – or Clapotis – is a scarf/shawl that is knit on the bias with dropped stitches that make for perfect Twitter updates as progress reports.
I’ll update more later, or someone else will. I’m going to go eat dinner, watch Lost and knit some more!
**Enter Joanna**
This is my third Clap. The first, I knit for my mom and I nearly didn’t give it to her, I loved it so much. The second, I wear as a scarf nearly all the time in cold weather or in my chilly office. As a matter of fact, I wear my blue Clap so often, I decided a few months ago that I needed a second one in a different color. When the idea of a Social Knitworking Clapotis Knit-Along came up, I was all in.
I’m using fingering weight yarn for a lighter scarf than the pattern suggests. In the photo at the left you can see I’ve completed 8 drop stitches. Isn’t it pretty?
Modifying the Clapotis pattern for different yarn weights and amounts is very easy since some genius discovered The Rule of Fifths. Here’s how the rule works: Weigh the yarn you’re using. Take that weight and divide it by 5. That number, 1/5 the total amount of your yarn, is the amount you’ll use to knit the Set-up and Increase Rows of the Clapotis pattern (Sections 1 and 2). Section 3 of the pattern, the Straight Rows, will take 3/5 the total amount of yarn, and Sections 4 and 5, the Decrease and Final Rows, will take the last 1/5 of your yarn.
In my case, I’m using three skeins of Knitpicks Stroll Multi in the Hearth colorway. This yarn comes in 50g skeins, so I have 150g in total. 1/5 of my total weight is 30g. So I used aproximately 30g of yarn in the Set-up and Increase sections of my Clap. Since that took less than a full skein of yarn, I’m using the last of that first skein and a full second skein in the Straight Rows. I’ll also start the last skein in the Straight Rows, but I’ll start weighing my skein as I knit. When I knit down to the 40g point I’ll get ready to start the Decrease Rows.
If our knit-along were a race, Nysssa would be winning. If you follow her tweets, you know she’s already started the decrease rows. I think that’s crazy awesome. And here she is, Evil Genius Nysssa, wearing her mostly finished Clapotis.
She’s using Halcyon Yarn, Victorian 2-Ply in black. Since she has a ridiculous amount of this yarn in her stash (5 skeins), she’s not using her total amount of yarn for her Clap. Rather, she worked the increase rows as written and knit the straight sections until she got to a length she liked.
Side Slip Cloche
Posted by springviolet in Pattern Review, Things We Do on December 7th, 2009
Posted by: springviolet
I knit a hat this weekend and I am ridiculously pleased with how it came out.
Can you guess who has a fondness for vintage clothing? Yeah, that would be me.
I knit this from a pattern, the Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits. (The hat is featured on the cover of the book if you click the link.)
I used some yarn I had in my stash (2 skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Painted Desert) and the flower embellishment was found in a sale bin at Michael’s on Friday night. All told, the supplies for this hat cost $6.
It was a rockin’ quick knit. I started the band on Friday night, getting as far as joining the two ruffles. While watching a couple movies Saturday morning (Netflix catch up day) I finished the band and started picking up stitches for the crown. Over the course of a couple hours on Saturday, over conversation with friends, I picked up all the stiches and got about an inch into the crown. Sunday, I finished it all off while watching tv, doing laundry and tidying up. (Why no, I did not block the band as the patter suggests. Does this make me a bad knitter?)
The pattern was fairly easy to follow. The only bit I had trouble with was understanding exactly where to start picking up stitches from the band. For some reason the way it was described in the pattern wasn’t exacly clear to me. The pattern notes say the hat is meant to be worn with the ruffles facing forward. I prefer it the other way (as you can see in the photo). I though it was funny that the cover of Boutique Knits also has the model wearing the hat ‘backward’.
Considering the cost and time spent, this would make a fantastic last minute holiday gift. But I’m keeping this baby for myself. :)
That $6 supply cost makes me rethink my stance on selling knits. Maybe I should knit up a box of accessories, rent a table at a craft fair or two next fall and see what happens. It could be a fun experiment. If I can coax some other crafters to join me, it may be worth it. But that’s a topic for another post. (Of course, I wouldn’t sell anything that wasn’t my own design. Just thought I’d mention that before I get comments about selling knits from other people’s patterns.)
There is only one problem with a hat like this. I now want a scarf, or some other type of neck warmer, to match. I like to match. For that to happen, I have to be just a little creative.
I have about half a skein of the yarn left. I also have about 30gm of a complimentary variegated yarn. Between the two yarns I should be able to come up with a pattern that will look nice with this hat as well as the hat I made in the variegated yarn. One neck warmer that works with both hats? That would be a wonderful thing.
My initial thoughts for a pattern: Make a short scarf using the band pattern of the hat. It should be at least two ribs wider. The bottom, larger, ruffle knit in the variagated yarn. I’ll keep you all posted on my progress. :)