Clapotis - Design of the Year, 2005

Congratulations to Kate Gilbert who won Knitter's Review "Design of the Year, 2005", for her lovely & popular Clapotis design.

I hope to knit one sometime this year, perhaps for my mom for Mother's Day or her birthday. I'd even like to use the exact yarn and color called for in the pattern -- that fuschia is quite striking. (Jenny, pick your jaw up off the floor).

In anticipation, I joined the Clapotis Knit-along Yahoo group. They have some helpful spreadsheets in their Files sections, with the pattern laid out line by line. One spreadsheet illustrates a brilliant idea -- use a purl stitch instead of a stitch marker for each stitch that will eventually be dropped. Genius!

I'd have to agree with Knitter's Review -- this design has shown up everywhere. I did a Google image search on the word clapotis, and got more than 500 image hits. And talented folks have customized the pattern with their own design ideas. I like this version of a clapotis hat. The hat's designer has even devoted a page of her blog to clapotis tips, including a photo of side-by-side examples of how much better the dropped stitches look if you twist the stitch on either side of them. Again -- genius.

The nice thing about this pattern being so popular is that I can see it knit up with countless different types of yarns and colorways, and I think I've decided that I don't like it when it's knit with self-striping yarns. I think the yarn stripes compete with the dropped stitch ladders, and not in a good way. For the most part, I tend to like a more random, mottled coloring to the yarn, or else a solid color, like this one. (See -- I didn't abandon my favorite color altogether!) ;-)

Again, kudos to Kate Gilbert for a wonderful design! She has some other great patterns available, as well. Kate just had a baby in November and so is a busy lady, for sure. Stop by her blog to give her props for all her 2005 accomplishments!