But what about the Cliveotis?
Once, there was a wee grey kitty named Clive. Clive loved to lounge about upon his girl’s knitting. He could bat at it, help her straighten the yarn, and make sure the points of her bamboo needles were nice and rough.
His favorite project, though, was the Clapotis. He knew it by its true name, the Cliveotis. It was a secret the two of them shared as they snuggled up together while the girl fussed about with its ends.
All was well with the cat and his Cliveotis … until it suddenly disappeared one evening. Clive looked and looked. Where could it be? Why … is that the Cliveotis, hiding behind the door?
It is, it is! Clive was so relieved to find his Cliveotis again. “What happened?! Where did you go?!” he frantically meowed.
“Don’t worry, little grey cat,” responded Cliveotis. “I am merely resting after a small bath. I will be good as new tomorrow, but I have to tell you … I think your girl would like to borrow me for a while.”
“Well,” said Clive, “I suppose that will be all right. I know that she’ll leave you out on the chair or a couch sometimes, and we can have a cozy little nap together sometimes. I’ll leave you to your drying, my friend. I seem to remember something else ‘Cozy‘ that is around here, and I better go check on it.”
And the Cliveotis smiled to itself, and settled in for a restful night of drying. She knew that Clive would be back, and that he would tell her all about the other friends he made.
C’est … um … completo!
(My apologies … I was a Spanish major, not French! I actually dropped out of French class after two weeks because I kept answering everything in Spanish and my French had a Spanish accent. Turned out, a few years later, that even my Russian has a Spanish accent, so … anyway … right. Knitting!)
I finished Clapotis tonight but Clive won’t get off of it so I can finish weaving in the ends. I love and adore this pattern, and I love the yarn enough to suffer through the itchy eyes and slight sniffles I get when I wear it. The pattern is simple genius, it really is. Basic stitches with careful planning and a bit of whimsy, that’s what Clapotis is.
I had four (minor) issues/mistakes with Clapotis:
- I ran out of yarn. I’d bought the three recommended skeins and then had to order another one, and didn’t get the same dye lot. Eh. The fourth skein is less vibrant than the others, but really — who cares? Not me.
- I forgot one yarn over in my set-up stitches. This made a bloody mess out of the end of one of the ladder runs, but I think it’ll be easily fixed with weaving. I’ll let you know when Clive gets up.
- I forgot to drop a stitch in one of my ladder runs, so I’m short a ladder run. I don’t know how I managed to do it, but I did. Again: eh.
- One of my sections is a stitch short. Again with the “eh!” because (a) it sounds so French and (b) it’s still beautiful, so who cares?!
On to Cozy while the cat snoozes beside me on the $100 cat bed known as “Clapotis” …
