no one can resist the clapotis



Clapotis shawl/scarf from Knitty in Malabrigo Kettle-Dyed Merino

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Longer than a speeding Thomas train.

More powerful than a Lego firetruck.

Able to distract a single boy from the television.

Look! Down on the floor!

It's a shawl! It's a scarf!

It's Clapotis!

Three balls of fabulous Malabrigo in and I'm on the decrease rows finally. Just 10 columns of stitches still to drop!

I call this picture "Boy with Banana Admiring Clapotis" or "Don't Touch it - Don't Touch it". Here's a close-up without the banana making us all nervous.

After I concluded yesteday that the Harry Potter scarf has sold me on long scarves, I looked into my knitting basket and found Clapotis. Hey, it's a long scarf too! And it's for me. Hooray! I know I won't be able to wear this for a while, but I can't wait to finish it now.

Two and a half skeins in and I'm dropping stitches like crazy. What fun!

Picture time, you know what that means.

I'm sure you all know what this is.

for those of you who have been on Mars, it's a Clapotis

Yes, I've succumbed and have started a Clapotis. This is very surprising to me, as although I do love the design, I am totally not a shawl or scarf person. But I'm going to a wedding in the fall where I need to wear a fancy little dress and will actually need a lovely little something to keep my bare shoulders warm. And what a perfect excuse to try out that new Malabrigo merino! I'm one skein in and it's as soft as a pillow. And no pilling or felting to report so far - but I have been warned by several people that this yarn is so soft it does tend to felt and pill. Given this tendency, I thought that a shawl might be a better way to use this yarn than in something like an everyday sweater or mittens. So I picked up my favorite colorway, the incredible Sunset that caught my eye when I first saw this yarn. And look at how pretty it is with the very first dropped stitches.

So, it's official, I have joined the masses. In fact, I have become utterly banal. I realized this when my in-laws were visiting last month. We have a tiny little compact car, so when they visit we have to rent a minivan. And then we ended up eating at Applebee's (we'd never been in one before but the boys always insist that they want to eat at "the apple restaurant"). So there I was, sitting in an Applebee's with my minivan parked outside and it struck me that I could have been any mom, anywhere, in Boston, in Ohio, in Texas, and been in the same identical restaurant eating the same food, with the same car outside, wearing my same Gap clothes and Lands End shoes. Thank goodness we were at least all speaking German! And now I will have a Clapotis, like everyone else in blogland. (Anything else we all seem to have to have besides a blog and a Clapotis?)

I must say that the pattern is fabulous though.

And I really liked the minivan too. (Hee. Hee.)