Friday, March 02, 2007

Clapping Again, or a Taste of Humility

I knit a gorgeous green Clapotis for my best friend's birthday, which is coming up on St. Patrick's Day. Lucky me, her favorite color is green! I finished the knitting several weeks ago. Yesterday, national handwash your handknit socks day, I decided to throw the Clap into the already prepared Eucalan bath. But first, I still needed to drop down those endless rows of dropped stitches. Those of you who have knit this wonderful scarf know what I mean. Endless hours of laddering down, all for the sake of getting a crick in your neck. I even enlisted the two wee ones for assistance, but they lasted about 5 minutes, or half a row, each. Do you know where this is going? I found two, that's right, TWO sections where I had neglected to drop the ladder stitch. I was trying to make a design element out of it, but I knew in my heart that something drastic needed to be done. I consulted the FT wizards, but evidently piles and piles of snow, publishing books, and humongous yarn markets have driven them all crazy. Yep, I finally found a problem that the FT ladies couldn't resolve (not an award I was hoping to receive). And so I ripped. And ripped. And ripped. 2/3rds of the scarf was ripped.



The silver lining (yes, there is one) is that I get to reknit this wonderful scarf using the smoothest of yarns (Four Play by Brooks Farm) and the most amazing Ernst needles in the color Amber Passion. So the reality is that although the scarf may become a belated birthday present, there is no pain in reknitting. Steph, you are so TOTALLY worth it!

7 comments:

Denise said...

I'm sorry there was no easy fix, Jen, but at least it's enjoyable knitting with that beautiful yarn and Sheila's glorious needles.

Anonymous said...

Bummer! I'm on my third knitting of Clapotis and have yet to have a completed one. Good thing it goes pretty fast and the yarn is awesome.

I'm making one now out of Four Play. It's my dress rehursal for LS Max in Electra. I didn't have enough yarn during the first knitting of that. I'll have to narrow or shorten before I try it again.

vanessa said...

gorgeous yarn and needles. leave it to you, jen, to find the silver lining :-)

Anonymous said...

Now that I'm done shoveling I have an idea... just kidding.

It's going to be a gorgeous shawl and it will have double the good feelings for your friend knit into it.

Anonymous said...

Does it help to tell you that the reknitting looks gorgeous? :-) The only solution I see here is to have another brownie. ;-)

Sheila E said...

Hey, you are way ahead of me....that looks too hard for me...and I am at present into Easy.
Great picture with the needles!! I am so glad that they get to be a part of the process!!

Anonymous said...

When I made my Clappy, I dropped each section as I got to it. It made it another part of the pattern and I was always SO happy when I got to drop 'em!