Clapotis Tips & Advice SheetAs the Clapotis KAL is approaching 200 pages, it is getting very difficult for new 'clappers' to find specific information/aid. I have tried to consolidate the most commonly requested & useful bits of advice here.
It's taken from throughout the thread, too many people to cite every individual source, so thanks to everyone!
Knitty’s Clapotis: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.htmlKAL Threadhttp://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=25312.0***************************************************
Here's a link if anyone needs help knitting or purling in the front and back of the stitch:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/increase.phpHere's the link to Knitty's abbreviations guide (scroll down):
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/patterns.html****************************************************
Yarn:What kind, what weight, what length, what fiber, what dimensions acquired… All this is discussed in the forum, but boiled down to a few practical tips for the new clapper:
Smoother yarns will let go of the dropped stitches with the least amount of work on your part. Fuzzy/toothy yarns tend to be a bear to drop.
Better to buy too much than too little.
For a lacier look, use larger needles.
If you use lace weight yarn, you will probably want to work with two strands at once.
Craftster Forum Yarn Favorites:
Caron Simply Soft Shadows (often abbreviated “SS”)
Patons SWS (A soy & wool blend)
South West Trading Co. Bamboo yarn
Silk blends & bamboo blends
A video of Knit Knit Through Back Loop (
Ktbl) can be found by going to the knittinghelp link below and scrolling down to "Bar Increase"
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/increases "I'm starting Clapotis. Row 1, I get.
Row 2... I have two stitches on my needle. Row 2 wants me to play with 3, if I'm reading it correctly. There's no instruction to m1, so I am VERY confused. Any insight?"pfb means purl in the front and back of the stitch, so there is an increase. At the end of Row 1 you should have 3 stitches on the needle.
For a bit of a how-to go to:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/increases Scroll down to "Bar Increase". It shows the knit-stitch version, but will give you the idea.
Basically, you make your usual purl, but d
o not slide the stitch off the left needle. Instead, immediately make another purl using the backside of the same loop.
"3 times I’ve re-started this thing! whhhyyy is it kicking my bum?! I think it's the repeating of the k1,ktb,k3 that's killing me."
Just remember that you
ktbl one stitch before the marker and
two stitches after. That helped me a lot--it was driving me nuts before I figured that one out!
SSK-It's important to not over think it.
Keep your yarn in back like you would when you're knitting like normal.
Put right needle into left needle like you would to knit the stitch, but don't wrap the yarn around the needle or anything. Just transfer that first stitch to the right needle.
Do the same for the second stitch.
Now take the left needle and put it in BOTH stitches on your right needle that you just transferred over. It should be in front of your right needle.
Wrap the yarn over your right needle, and pull it through the two stitches.
"Throughout the whole pattern it says Sl for slip stitch, and in the knitting abbreviations thing, that says that it means to slip knitwise, so you slip as if to knit for the whole pattern, even on purl rows?"In my many years of knitting, I have always slipped as if to knit if I am on the knit side and to purl if I am on the purl side.
Section 3 (Straight Rows) Row 8 -- Trouble grasping this concept? You are not alone!
Row 8: P1,
remove marker, drop next st, let it drop down several rows, pick up top bar with left needle to form a new st (make sure this st isn't twisted), k this and foll st tbl, k3, k tbl, [k1, k tbl, k3, k tbl] to last marker, k1, k tbl, kfb.
1) What “
Top Bar”??
"What bar are they talking about for me to try and pick up and make a stitch from? im so confused?" Think of a stitch as a U.
A section of stitches is UUUUU
UUUUU
UUUUU
When you "drop" a stitch, what you are really doing is unwrapping it from the stitch below.
UUUUU becomes UU__UU
UUUUU UUUUU
UUUUU UUUUU
Once several stitches drop, you get UU___UU
UU___UU
UU___UU
The straight line of yarn is your "bar" to pick up...
2) What in the world does Foll st tbl mean???Knit the
following
stitch
through the
back
loop.
So, do the increase by picking up the top bar after you drop the stitch, knit that stitch and the one following through the back loop (each separately). Then continue on in pattern.
3) Do I pick up & knit the bar 'flat', so to speak, or give it a turn/twist to form a loop before I k it?It didn't seem to make a difference. Twist the picked up bar to tighten it up; pick it up flat to keep things loose.
RE: Holes that appear along the edge starting at Row 2 Section 2 and continue to appear at regular intervals
The holes are part of the pattern. They are the ends of the rows you will be dropping – think of them as cul-de-sacs for the running drops.
Once the stitches are dropped, the holes melt away.
If you lose your place: "I got hot and heavy one knitting my first Clapotis....then got burnt out. I stopped half way through it. My question is how do I tell where I am in the pattern? (I am in section 3 I know that for a fact.)"Since you know your section, all you need to do is count the number of stitches you have before your first
k tbl and match that up with the row in the pattern.
So, for example, if you count 3 stitches before the first tbl, then you are on Row 2 (P1 + k2 = 3) if you have 5 stitches, you are Row 10 (P1 + k4 = 5).
"I am not seeing any of the twisted dropped stitches AT ALL."You do have to knit for quite a little bit before you get to do any stitch dropping.
Section 1 (Set Up Rows) and Section 2 (Increase Rows) don't have any dropping yet, and in Section 3 (The Straight Rows) you still don't get to drop one until Row 8.
Until you get to section three, you will be looking at a solid triangle of stockinet.
"Is anybody else’s clapotis curling?"
It is basically a big block of stockinet, so that is pretty normal. Give it a good blocking when you finish, and you should be a-ok.
(Many knitters prefer the gentle curling when it is done, and do not block it at all.)
[A Craftster] did some [crocheted] edging last night, simple sc along the bottom side. It has almost stopped it from curling up in the one corner but it lets it curl some if needed.
To block or not to block?The designer was going for a rippled/undulating -- the name translates to “ripples” which is what the dropped stitches look like. She recommends not blocking.
'I hand washed them and then hung them on a towel rack to dry. I think it worked ok, except the edges might need some extra blocking or something.'
'I would definitely not throw it in the washer & dryer with that much [75%] wool - unless of course it is "super-wash" treated wool.'
'…When I blocked it, it grew quite a bit….'
'I blocked mine, and it did lose a lot of the ripple effect'
RE: Do you really need to use all those stitch markers??NOPE!
I am now doing the purl stitches for the drop stitches -- this way I am only using stitch markers for the first row after they are introduced. Hooray for freedom from stitch markers!
The stitch that gets dropped is the K1 between the 2 Ktbls Purl that K1 and no markers are necessary!
SO Row 2 in Section 2 would read:
Row 2: Sl1, k1, ktbl, [
p1,ktbl,k3,ktbl] to last marker,
p1, ktbl, kfb.
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Easy way to think of altering the size/shape:
Section 2 decides how wide your clappy will be.
Section 3 decides how long. For a narrower version, do less repeats in section 2, the increase rows. For wider, do more.
For a shorter one, do less repeats in section 3, the straight rows. For longer…
NB: Keep in mind that altering the repeats in section 2 will affect your overall yarn requirements more than changes in section 3!
The width set by section 2 determines how much yarn you use to get across every single straight row of section 3.
This information is also useful as you use yarns of different gauges; for example, if you are using a thinner thread with a smaller gauge, you will need to do more repeats to get it as wide & long as a normal clapotis.
RE: How to make sure you won’t run out of yarn before you are finished.You'll need as much for the decrease rows as you did for the increase ones. So if you used up 1 1/2 balls before starting the straight rows, set aside 1 1/2 balls for the decrease section at the end. Everything else can be used for the middle.
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