if you are on ravelry (and if you aren’t you should be), then you might have a queue of patterns that you plan on making in your lifetime (or many lifetimes).

i have 46 patterns in my personal queue on ravelry.com. i know some will have more. but these are patterns that i fell in love with at first sight. some are from my early days of knitting and others are when i wanted to be challenged by some technique. a hand full are actual patterns that i have the actual yarn to do the project!

one of those early patterns is clapotis! when i started knitting back in ’04, i would pour over knitting magazines trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible! then i got my invite to ravelry (remember those!) and i discovered kate gilbert.

kate gilbert is a pattern designer who was leaving in paris with her french husband when she designed clapotis! maybe it was the bright colored yarn or the french bistro where the photograph was taken but i wanted to make this pattern!

it required 820 yarns of silk/wool blend. in those days, anything more than 250 yards seemed like an insane amount of yarn! and at this point i wouldn’t dare make a substitution. the original was knit with lorna’s laces lion and lamb. so i trooped over to the YARN mart (this was long before i ever thought i would own it!) no lorna’s laces there!

so off to the internet. i think jimmy bean wool might have been the only online place i could find it and at $40 per skein… “$120 for a shawl! that’s crazy!” that’s my ’04 self with sticker shock! i stuck it in the queue and waited.

about a year ago i posted about clapotis on the YARN mart blog. i challenged folks to knit clapotis with me or find their own clapotis! i grabbed 2 ball of ella rae lace merino and got started. so much has changed in a year! no more the YARN mart! no more having to knit what will sell yarn! now i knit for me now!

when i closed the shop, i loaded all my UFOs into my SCOUT  basket and brought it home.  i did an initial purge. do i still want to knit this? what was i thinking with this? i’m never gonna finish this – ever!!!  i think we all have tub or closet or drawer like this!

in this mess, i rediscovered by clapotis! i’m about 1/2 way through! time to finish it! i just gotta finish it! the amazing thing is that i still love clapotis. 13 years later i still love this shawl! what knitting pattern can you say that about?

so just like a year ago, i challenge you to go find your clapotis! what pattern did you fall in love with when you started knitting or first discovered ravelry? do you still love it but never cast on? well go do it! but don’t forget to share! let us know what pattern, what pattern, what inspired you!!!

happy knitting.

h.