Actual Knitting Content Ahead!

Yo! I knit! Who'd have thunk it based on recent content here?!

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks ago I finished my Clapotis that I made out of Misti Alpaca Worsted weight yarn. Yum, this stuff was nice to knit with. I had purchased 8 balls and I ended up using just over 6.

Not long after I finished, I went to the Pleasanton Scrapbook Expo and took it along with me as well as my Knitters Block and my box of quilting pins I use for everything. My little demons won't leave the pins alone at home, so I figured in the confines of a hotel room (we actually stayed at the Residence Inn in Livermore for the weekend after the expo) I could block the wrap without disturbance. And block I did!

I know that Kate Gilbert says she prefers it unblocked, but I seemed to get a little loosy goosy in the decrease section and it wasn't exactly rectangular. And as I knit it exactly as the pattern was written, it was a wee bit smaller than I had wanted for it to be. So I went ahead and wet blocked the hell out of it. The dye ran a little in the sink (I let it sit in Soak for ~15 mins) and it smelled a bit like wet dog. I was damned if that was going to stop my Clapotis enjoyment (I was finally a member of the Clapotis Clan, wahoo) so I tossed two bath towels on the floor and started blocking (ok, so first of all I set down the Knitters Block mats.. and quickly determined I should have bought two sets if I ever wanted to block something larger than a child's sweater).

While I was in the process of pinning it, I discovered that I neglected to finish dropping one of the stitches. After it was wet. Alpaca isn't fun to drop stitches with to begin with let alone when it is a WET alpaca stitch to drop. Ugh.


But, I showed it who was boss and managed to get it dropped. Really it was only the first stitch that was really sticky (I had to snip the fibers slightly), the rest of the rows seemed to drop much easier.

It got to sit for 24 hours on our hotel room floor unmolested:


I am SO happy I blocked it. The drape is so much nicer and it expanded slightly (blocked dimensions are 24" x 78". I think it is 24" wide. I knew I would regret not writing that number down). Thankfully it didn't become enormous, but it did get to be a size that was very comfortable for me. I have worn it multiple times since then, I am so in love with it!