Knitting peer pressure has hit me

And I join the ranks of folk casting on Clapotis :) This is one of those patterns that came and just took off. And as I'm getting into it, I can see why! It's simple enough that it's good TV or conversation knitting (you know, mindless knitting) but there's enough variation that it's not totally boring (like, say, a sweater for a 6 ft man of plain stockinette...). And since it's a finer yarn, it's actually only two skeins! Fit nicely in my carry-on bag as a travel project. Unusual for a shawl to be a travel project, but there you go! And since we had SO many crazy delays this trip, I definitely got some knitting done!!

Oh, and it's pronounced Clap-o-tee by most people, in case you're wondering.

I am using a sock yarn in a lovely purple ombre colorway. Lang Jawoll Magic. Nice superwash wool (not that I'd put my hand-knits in the wash, especially this one with all the dropped stitches, but still, nice to know it won't felt on me even on accident). You can see a bit of the purple shading in the on-end picture below.

I'm really enjoying how it's knitting up. Much softer than a lot of sock wools out there, particularly superwash ones. Not squishy soft, but certainly not scratchy by any means. I'm knitting on US 7's. The pattern calls for US 8's, but that was a little too drapey for my taste, so I went down a size. It's still much bigger that what a sock yarn usually uses, but it's not quite as loose. Just personal preference. Part of what I love about scarves and shawls and such - gauge isn't quite so important as with other wearables :)

It's knit on the bias, part of what gives it such lovely drape. It also means that the "starting triangle" of increasing stitches goes really quickly! I'm into the straight rows - the slog-along part of the project now. 107 stitches through lots of 12-row repeats. But even then, you have a dropped stitch every 12 rows, so that's a bit of fun to break it up and make it not quite such a boring project.

Talking with shop owner of a yarn shop in Tallahassee while we were visiting (Really Knit Stuff - worth a stop!), she said she had held a class for Clapotis. A lot of the ladies were really nervous when it came to dropping their stitches! I can understand somewhat, actually - it's very counter-habit for knitters. Those stitches should stay on the needle, right? It's a heart stopping moment in some patterns if you drop stitches - "Gasp! Nobody move! Where's my crochet hook?!" And then this pattern calls for you to do it intentionally?! But it's actually pretty fun dropping the stitches on purpose. Good for relaxing your knitting - "Learn to let go" sort of thing.

As of Knit Night on Thursday, I'd made it through my first 4 drops :)

Oh, and don't all my little carrot stitch markers look cute? :) You need a lot of them in this pattern, to mark all the twisted stitches for the drops. This project's what got me into beading stitch markers in the first place! If I'm going to be stitch markers on a project, I really prefer them to match, and it's just hard to find 18 stitch marks in the same style!