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Isager Clapotis

In 2017 I made a Clapotis by Kate Gilbert and I loved it, but then so did Mom so it lives in Wisconsin with her.

Mom in said Clapotis and Rachel, my niece at her graduation
Just as a reminder, that Clapotis was made as I travelled through Australia and New Zealand.  The pattern lends itself to travel because the rows are easy to remember, one generally needs only a couple of cakes of yarn and it will keep a knitter busy for a long time.   As I planned what to take to knit on the Northern Isles cruise another Clapotis was what I settled upon.

This time one of my favorite yarns would be used:  Isager Hojlandsgarn 100% wool fingering weight from the stash.  I had both Thistle and Curry colors, leftovers from my Summer Shawl.  A start had been made on the flight from Vancouver to Copenhagen, but not much had been completed.  On a walking tour we located a wonderful yarn shop in downtown Copenhagen called Sommerfuglen (translated it means Butterfly).  There on sale was a perfect complement to my light gray and goldenrod colored Isager yarn, another Isager called Merlin made of 80% wool and 20% flax in color #47, which I will call a heathered dark blue.  It too was in a fingering weight.

The Danish purchase had only 208 m or 227.5 yards.  To knit the type of Clapotis I had in mind putting all three of the yarns together involved some creativity.  Both ends are knit in Thistle with a stripe of Curry thrown in before and after the Heather Dark Blue center.  This meant I had to count rows not only in the colors used but also in the segments where the color changes were made, not a big deal but it did take a bit of forethought to keep track of these details.  All 208 meters of the blue was used and this is how it looks.


Mara came in for a closer look at it drying

Fluttering in the breeze on a sunny day
When the first two colors were selected I had my heavy duty Pendleton wool coat in mind.  No shawl or scarf had been made to go with its not so understated color.  (But the dark blue will also work great with jeans on those really cold days.)  As I contemplated using Thistle and Curry the words of my color guru, Helen, from Black Sheep Yarns came to mind.  She said perfect matching of colors is less interesting than colors that relate well to one another.  Here´s how it looks with that coat.

I believe Helen would approve
Whenever this Clapotis is worn it will remind me of the yarn crawl in Portland several years ago where the first two Isager colors were purchased and then that special purchase in Copenhagen.  I love wearable souvenirs.




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