Knit One, Purr Too

I finished my Nutkin socks and finally got a picture of them.

Then I whipped up another pair of socks, this one just regular stockinette-in-the-round, because the color striping was plenty of pattern for me (I really like the color striping!). This is a Trekking XXL colorway.

I started a new pair of socks - this pair for Richard and I left the sock-in-progress on the coffee table one evening and when I looked the next morning I found this.

Hmm. How *could* that have happened? I am sure a certain yarn-eating tortoiseshell cat had *nothing* to do with it. Right, Rosie?

Ever noticed how good cats are at looking completely, utterly innocent?

Just a quick note, for anyone who might head this way in the next few days. Magknits has shut down, rather abruptly and unexpectedly, and the letter on the main page says they will not be maintaining the archives at all. As all rights to the patterns remained with the designers even when Magknits was still live, this means that the designers now have to figure out what to do with their patterns - where to put them, whether to continue to offer them for free, and so on.

I’ve pdf’d Counterpoint and made it available as a free pdf download on Ravelry. The link on my sidebar for Knit One, Purr Too, has also been changed to reflect this.

For any of you who had bookmarked a pattern on Magknits, you may have some success using Google’s Wayback Machine; alternatively, designers are slowly converting and posting their patterns either on their sites or on via Ravelry’s pattern download system.

If you have any problem with the download or find any errors in the pdf, please let me know!

So here is the thing about the Claoptis. I have to admit that I was never all that excited about the project. I mean, seriously, it’s just a scarf with some diagonal drop-stitching. Boooring. Plus, everyone in the world was making them, and who wants to be just like everyone else.

But then the local knitting group had a little knit-along, and I decided what the heck, since it was certainly going to be a nice, easy project and it would use up some stash yarn, and I had been trying to think of a project to make for an upcoming birthday anyway, and this seemed just as good an idea as anything else. So exactly two weeks ago I cast on (several times, in fact, with three different types of yarn before finally settling on the one I ended up using). The yarn I used misplaced its label quite some time ago, but if I close my eyes I can see myself huddled beside a basket of pretty gray (unlabeled) yarn at the Tess Designer Yarns booth, trying to find a selection of matching skeins, so I am taking a guess that it’s a merino and mohair combination. The yarn itself is delicious soft and silky - that alone kept me happily knitting away. Plus, I took the advice of a fellow knitter and purled the drop stitch columns instead of having to fuss with pesky little stitch markers, and before I knew it, it was time to start dropping stitches.

And that’s when it hit me, why it is that this pattern is so popular and everyone in the world is making themselves a Claoptis (or two, or six). Those simple dropped stitches, done on a diagonal, turn this into something just a little bit amazing. The dropping of the stitches adds width, but not bulk, to what would otherwise be a rather boring little scarf, so if you use a light weight yarn, it can just as easily be wrapped around your neck as spread out and wrapped around your shoulders.

I finished my first Clapotis last Thursday night, in exactly one week. And then the next morning, I dug out the remainder of that mystery yarn and my little kitchen scale, weighed them against the finished Clapotis, determined I had exactly enough, and the very next morning, cast on for the second. The first will still be mailed off for that aforementioned birthday, but the second one, which I finished last night, is just for me.

I gave the first one a quick bath, and while I didn’t pin it out, I did let it drape a bit wider on the bed, so it’s dried a bit more open and airy than the second (so far). I thought about taking pictures of them singly, but considering they’re the same yarn, I figured that’d be a bit boring. Plus, one of the other Clapotis knit-alongers wanted to know how much the wash had made my first one grow. So when I came home this afternoon, I stretched both out onto the floor and did my best to take some pictures.

Of course, that’s always easier said than done when there are cats around. Rosie and Azzie immediately came rushing over to see what I was doing, and in the few seconds it took for me to turn around and grab my camera, they’d already flopped down to take advantage of the new (temporary) place to lounge.

A little straightening, a little distraction in the shape of a conveniently tossed cat toy, and at least I’ve only got one ‘assistant’ in the picture, and a better view of my twin Clapotis.

The Nutkin socks are done (pictures forthcoming), I’ve cast on for a Clapotis with some kind of mystery yarn from my stash that I am pretty sure is some kind of merino wool (because it’s amazingly soft and has a lovely halo), and I’m nearly done with the first front panel for my ribbed cardigan.

And in the midst of all of that, I finally managed to get some decent pictures of these (sadly, these have been done for *months* now).

Pattern is in process of being written. Once it’s done, it’ll be available for $4, via Ravelry’s pattern store (I’ll put a link on this site as well).

Look, an update with actual pictures. Will wonders never cease?

I’m finally getting around to clearing out my camera card. Still need to snap some pictures of much earlier finished objects (there’s two pairs of socks already worn and washed several times by Richard that I need to photograph one of these days), but all those empty spaces in my Ravelry project queue were starting to mock me.

First up, the Gryffindor scarf I made for my niece for her Harry Potter birthday party.

Next up, an in-progress picture of the Nutkin socks I’m working on.

It’s been lovely to have a sock-in-progress in my purse again - I was really missing having something I could pull out to do a few quick rows here and there. I love how the Trekking XXL colors merge slowly into one another, and I think it works really well with the stitch pattern here.

And finally, a quick little project that took me all of about one hour to whip up this afternoon. Seems like every time I turn around there’s another baby blanket to work on (and I never did get a complete picture from the last one I put together, alas). This time around I only had to do one, nice big 12″x12″ square, so I grabbed one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries off my shelf and the remains of the gold Plymouth Encore from my niece’s Gryffindor scarf, and cast on for these Twining Trees.

The color here isn’t exactly true - see the Gryffindor scarf picture above for a more accurate representation of the gold - but I was more concerned with capturing the stitch pattern than the yarn color, so I’m not too concerned.