What a difference a week makes. Last week I was trying to tempt my flagging knitterly mojo out of hibernation with the cunning use of snacks.
This week I can’t put my needles down. And it’s ironic that the pattern I have suddenly become obsessed with is the one that first got me back into knitting in 2007.
The Clapotis shawl by Kate Gilbert is an iconic pattern - published in Knitty magazine an incredible 20 years ago. It set the knitting world alight back then and was arguably the first knitting pattern to go viral. It’s a really engaging fun pattern, where you actually drop stitches on purpose and it creates a wonderful drapey, wearable shawl.
When I came back to knitting (having learned as a child) I had two tiny children and was desperate for a hobby that I could fit in around busy days of toddler wrangling. It’s hard to emphasise how dire the choice of patterns was at that time in the UK. Patterns published in magazines were mainly focused on baby knits, aran cardigans and accessories, and with a few notable exceptions like Rowan magazine, none of them featured patterns that I actually wanted to knit/wear. Indie publishing of knitting patterns was very much in the early days.
Finding out that there was a whole knitting world online was a total revelation and Knitty magazine was stuffed full of (free) patterns that I actually wanted to knit. Figuring out how to substitute US yarns for those available commercially here was a challenge, but one that proved to be a great way of broadening my knitting skills, and one that I have never looked back from.
Clapotisfest: to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this shawl the pattern has been relaunched and there are competitions and events galore over on the Knitty magazine website and social media. Do take a look if you are interested.
What’s making me smile this week (apart from the Clapotis)
⭐ Being able to ‘shop from stash’ for a new cast on. It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling guilty for having a lot of stored yarn - but there’s nothing quite like the smug feeling of seeing a fabulous pattern and having the instant gratification of pulling the perfect yarn from your storage - from idea to cast on in less than 10 minutes.
⭐ This lovely piece from
about the joys of little things.⭐
wrote this brilliant piece about the importance of writing our ideas down - all of them - and she also recommended something which is my fourth ‘thing making me smile’⭐ The MyMindapp - a great bookmarking and note keeping app which works really intuitively. It’s a bit like Pinterest in that you can pin all sorts of things to it, but it’s completely private and it does away with the need to add tags or file things (unless you want to)
⭐ The forthcoming Autumn Equinox - always one of my favourite times of the year, as we shift into autumn and start to embrace the darker nights and cosier days. Time to get the knitwear out of storage and get ready to wear all the woolies.
This week’s Tuesday discussion was about making time for your knitting - do pop over and take a look through the comments if you missed it.
Right. If you’ll excuse me I need to get packing (again) as my eldest son heads back to Uni tomorrow. As of Saturday evening myself and my husband will be officially home alone. But in the immortal words of Mel Robbins (who talked about this on her podcast just the other week) we are not thinking of ourselves as empty nesters - more as baby bird launchers. Sending our babies off to fly by themselves into the brilliant future that awaits them.
So many lovely memories around Chapatis even though I didn't have the skills to make it then. Knitty and Ravelry were iconic in connecting knitters around the world.
Aw, "Bird Launchers" - I LOVE it! 🥰 a great round up.. Thank you Louise 🙏