First we have Higgins. He’s a 4-month-old bug (boxer/pug mix). This guy was all charm and was silly over dog cookies.

From Knitting

Our other visitor was Blue. Also 4-months-old.

From Knitting

And just so there are a couple knitting photos…

I had finished these socks before our Knit in Public Day meet-up, however I brought them to show off and photograph. They are the Braided Gem Socks from Knitting Socks from Handpainted Yarn.

From Knitting

Last weekend was our Church of the Blankie meetup. Here’s Jenn with her fabulous Blankie.

From Knitting

I’ve been working on starting and completing 10 projects this year and I’m doing quite well (I’m on 8, 9 if you count the breastfeeding shawl I made for a friend, 6 if you only count items I’m making for myself). I’m about to start the Bonyard Shawl with an angora merino blend called Jolie. One of the projects was Citrus which is in this year’s house color – blue. I have a few photos on my Ravelry page. Well, off to start season 2 of 24!

Happy Knitting everyone!

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.

August: We <3 Nerds
From Dr. Who scarves to Murloc toys, we’re going to be talking about nerdy knits this August.  And maybe we’ll also talk a little about how the Social Knitworking podcast came to be.

September:  We Get Our Drunk On
Hey look! September is drunk podcasting month. (The history of which you can read over at Hipster, Please!)

We at Social Knitworking are fans of the occasional tipple. No really, we are! In addition to knocking back a few drinks, we’ll be talking to our resident cocktail fan, Connie. She’s sure to share some fun recipes. Also, we’ll chat about some knits that can used around the bar or at the table.

Also in September we’ll visit with the Cult of The Blankie.  If you haven’t started your own sock yarn blanket, you soon will.  Yes, you soon will. 

October: Road Trip!
The Social Knitworking crew will be hitting the road for that east coast fiber mecca: The Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck, NY.  We’re looking forward to some special interviews from the festival field.

If you have any questions or suggestions please remember our feedback line is up and running.  Give us a call at 215.839.6373 (215.839.NERD).

We are now accepting callers for these beautiful pendant keychains… I mean, for the feedback section of the podcast! Being that we have yet to start recording Episode One yet, we’re asking for any questions or suggestions from friends or followers. If you want to know something about knitting, Philadelphia, or any of the many synonyms for taint, just leave a message.

The phone number to call is 215.839.6373 (215.839.NERD). Yes, that’s right. The word NERD is totally in my phone number. Suck on that, geeks.